This impressive study compels attention from students in international and comparative politics interested in the meeting of theory and case studies. It is admirably conceptualized, crafted, and researched. It raises our understanding of political economy, past, present, and future. -- Peter Gourevitch, University of California, San Diego The combination of theoretical depth and empirical richness will make this brilliant study stand out for years to come. -- Vinod K. Aggarwal, University of California, Berkeley

In this ambitious exploration of how foreign trade policy is made in democratic regimes, Daniel Verdier shows that special interests, party ideologues, and state officials and diplomats act as agents of the voters. Constructing a general theory in which existing theories (rent-seeking, median voting, state autonomy) function as partial explanations, he shows that trade institutions are not fixed entities but products of political competition.