The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy Reforms

"This book is a search for the fil rouge in political-economic levers and mechanisms of one of the most controversial public policies that is becoming more and more difficult to understand. Lovec describes the transformation of CAP from its beginnings of market-protectionism to the contemporary multifunctional paradigm, with the latter merely serving as a cover for the interests of distribution of means and power that were present all along. His extensive chronology builds a bridge between agrarian economic and political science based reading of CAP, and applies a brave focus through a lens of critical realism and critical political economy." (Emil Erjavec, Professor of Agricultural Policy and Economics at the Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, and regular Visiting Professor at the University of Natural Resources and Live Sciences (BOKU), Austria) "Outstanding use of critical realism and theoretical elaboration for the explanation of the emergence, development and future of EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Critical social science finally shows its sophisticated, non-reductive empirical worth and comparative bite." (Milan Brglez, Assistant Professor in International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)

This book engages in the controversies of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms, demonstrating how these are reiterated by mainstream theoretical approaches in the field.

This book engages in the controversies of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms, demonstrating how these are reiterated by mainstream theoretical approaches in the field.

The reforms that the European Union’s CAP underwent during the last three decades were intended to make it less trade-distorting, more taxpayer-friendly and more able to meet the new challenges of environmental concerns and rural development/territorial cohesion. The outcome of the reforms has, however, contradicted these objectives, with the controversies being reiterated by the mainstream theoretical approaches in the field.

European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy Reforms argues that these controversies are due to reductionist, rationalist and idealist assumptions with regard to the object of inquiry applied by mainstream approaches. It proposes an alternative critical approach that takes into account the role of real material factors. Critical realism is not just an alternative explanation of CAP reforms but an alternative theory of how explanations can be made, which enables readers to reflect upon and endorse the results of existing lines of research in proceeding towards deeper level theory.