Political economy and governance: Agriculture and food policy from local to global

Kyle, Jordan; Resnick, Danielle; and Mockshell, Jonathan. 2025. Political economy and governance: Agriculture and food policy from local to global. In Global food policy report 2025: Food policy: Lessons and priorities for a changing world, eds. Johan Swinnen and Christopher Barrett. Part Five: Effecting Change, Chapter 15, Pp. 367-388. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174347

Policymaking is shaped by evidence as well as by political economy and governance factors such as incentives, institutional structures, ideological biases, and power dynamics. Over the past several decades, these factors have intersected with significant trends affecting the international development policy landscape, with important implications for agriculture and food policy. This chapter examines the key areas of decentralization, agriculture and food policy reform processes, political economy of distribution, and state capacity, before looking ahead to the need to build effective and legitimate global institutions for food systems governance.