The Old and New Logic of Agricultural Policy in Europe: Are there Effective Steering Mechanisms for Sustainable Agriculture?

Few policies have been as heavily criticised as European agricultural policy. Consequently, since its establishment in 1962, it has been in a continuous process of reform, encompassing six major reforms in the last 30 years alone. The central question arises: What is the logic behind the endless reform history of EU agricultural policy? Are agricultural reforms fundamentally a logical consequence of changing objectives or structural conditions, and thus dynamically efficient? Or do they represent a sequence of unsuccessful political learning processes and thus a perpetual policy failure? The latter implies that there are more efficient policy options that would be politically feasible given the democratic power relations and decision-making processes in place.