This study examines the factors triggering U.S. steel protection
policies and how such pressures are absorbed by the bureaucracy
and translated into policy. The study aims to analyze the causes of
the recent intensification of U.S. protectionism an...
This study examines the factors triggering U.S. steel protection
policies and how such pressures are absorbed by the bureaucracy
and translated into policy. The study aims to analyze the causes of
the recent intensification of U.S. protectionism and to suggest
appropriate policy responses.
To this end, it selected the Bush administration's 2002
‘safeguards’ and the Trump administration's 2018 ‘Section 232 of the
Trade Expansion Act’ as subjects for comparative analysis. It
established Kenneth Waltz's ‘image theory’ as the analytical
framework to examine the decision-making pathway leading to
policy outcomes. In addition, it focused on how differences in the
modes of bureaucratic mediation (the policy-making apparatus) – a
factor previously overlooked in studies on protectionist measures –74 / 74
determine the level (intensity) of such measures by conceptualizing
the bureaucracy as a mediating variable.
The findings show that domestic factors, namely interest groups,
were the direct trigger for protectionist measures under the Bush
administration, while external factors, specifically hegemonic
competition, were the direct trigger under the Trump administration.
The intensity of protectionist measures was higher during the Trump
period, stemming from differences in how the bureaucracies of the
two administrations operated. While the Bush bureaucracy followed
Allison's ‘organizational model,’ producing compromise policies based
on inter-agency differences, the Trump bureaucracy adopted a
‘rational model,’ generating aggressive measures under the common
goal of securing hegemony. This suggests that whether and to what
extent protectionist policies are enacted can vary depending on how
the bureaucracy interprets external factors.
This study holds academic significance by moving beyond the
view that protectionist measures arise solely from domestic and
international factors, and by refining the determinants of protectionist
policy through incorporating the mediating function of the
bureaucracy. It may also contribute to future research on changes in
the structure of the U.S. bureaucracy.