Policy Integration for Sustainable Development: An Analysis of Patent Regulation in Latin America

Abstract

Policy integration is one of the main challenges in promoting sustainable development. Global governance mechanisms, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlight the importance of integrating different policy domains to promote effective outcomes for sustainable development. Although the SDGs present an opportunity for a comprehensive transformational change, intrinsic trade-offs among the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development can hinder the achievement of this global agenda. Tackling these trade-offs and reconciling conflicting goals is a central part of the domestic implementation of the SDGs. Global governance mechanisms often overlook how trade regulation, such as patent protection, impacts the achievement of the SDGs. While granting monopoly rights to patent holders can incentivise local innovation, it can also affect how developing countries access technologies crucial for sustainable development, including public health, energy transition, and food security. Most countries in Latin America have committed to patent regulation in trade agreements that can restrict their policy space to promote sustainability goals. Against this background, this thesis examines to what extent Latin American countries have integrated sustainability goals into recent patent regulation and the conditions for policy integration. This thesis draws on a theoretical framework that combines perspectives from international political economy, global governance, and policy studies to identify the conditions for policy integration. This framework views policy integration for sustainable development as a political process in which domestic and transnational actors promote competing interests and perspectives on patent regulation and sustainability issues, also emphasising the relevance of policy space for integrative policymaking. This thesis uses a mixed-methods research design that combines a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of 17 Latin American countries with four qualitative case studies of patent regulation in Brazil and Chile taking place between 2015-2022. This thesis argues that the extent of policy integration for sustainable development depends on the existing legal and political policy space and the active role and coordination of policymakers, civil society organisations, and the domestic industry. The results of this study indicate that policy integration for sustainable development is context contingent, changing in scope and content depending on how policymaking institutions navigate private and public interests in patent policymaking. The results also show that Latin American countries constantly tailor patent regulation to achieve national development purposes and tackle significant challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This research provides evidence of the lack of mainstreaming of the SDGs into national policies. The cases explored in this thesis indicate that health was the only sustainability issue in most policymaking discussions, suggesting that the SDGs are not a strong normative force to promote changes in patent regulation. Consequently, Latin American countries demonstrated more concerns with dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and designing responses to the pandemic compared to changing patent regulation to mainstream sustainability goals. This thesis contributes to the growing research agenda on policy integration for sustainable development, introducing a set of conditions that can be further tested in other policy areas, such as climate change. The findings also contribute to understanding how transnational actors influence domestic policymaking and the role of trade regulation in enabling or hindering sustainability goals. This thesis also provides evidence of the role of civil society and the domestic industry in shaping political agendas, contributing to the literature on coalitions, lobbying, and participatory policymaking. Show more