The Political Economy of the Common Agricultural Policy

The Political Economy of the Common Agricultural Policy PDF

Author: Fernando Collantes

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-03-19

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 1000055434

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What is the balance of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy more than half a century after its birth? Does it illustrate the virtues of the European model of coordinated capitalism, as opposed to US-style liberal capitalism? Or is it an incoherent set of instruments that exert diverse negative impacts and, like Frankenstein’s monster, seems to have escaped the control of its designers? The Political Economy of the Common Agricultural Policy does not criticize the CAP from the liberal standpoint that views most public interventions in the economy as bad for efficiency and welfare. The CAP has been costly to Europeans, both as consumers and as taxpayers, and has also generated a number of negative impacts upon third countries, but these costs and impacts have been more moderate than is suggested. This book proposes that the issue with the CAP is not a generic problem of coordinating capitalism but, instead, a more specific problem of low-quality coordination. The text argues that profound reform of the European Union’s institutions and policies is required to counter the rapid rise of a more Eurosceptical state of mind but – in the case of agricultural policy – history casts serious doubts on the capacity of the European network of agriculture-related politicians to lead such a reform. This key work is essential reading for researchers, graduate students, and master’s level docents of the Common Agricultural Policy and – more broadly – European Union policy and reform.

The Political Economy of the 2014-2020 Common Agricultural Policy

The Political Economy of the 2014-2020 Common Agricultural Policy PDF

Author: Johan F.M. Swinnen

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2015-07-30

Total Pages: 597

ISBN-13: 1783484853

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After five years of debates, consultations and negotiations, the European institutions reached an agreement in 2013 on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the 2014-2020 period. The outcome has major implications for the EU’s budget and farmers’ incomes, but also for Europe’s environment, its contribution to global climate change and to food security in the EU and in the world. It was decided to spend more than €400 billion during the rest of the decade on the CAP. The official claims are that the new CAP will take better account of society's expectations and lead to far-reaching changes by making subsidies fairer and ‘greener’ and making the CAP more efficient. It is also asserted that the CAP will play a key part in achieving the overall objective of promoting smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. However, there is significant scepticism about these claims and disappointment with the outcome of the decision-making, the first in which the European Parliament was involved under the co-decision procedure. In contrast to earlier reforms where more substantive changes were made to the CAP, the factors that induced the policy discussions in 2008-13 and those that influenced the decision-making did not reinforce each other. On the contrary, they sometimes counteracted one another, yielding an ‘imperfect storm’ as it were, resulting in more status quo and fewer changes. This book discusses the outcome of the decision-making and the factors that influenced the policy choices and decisions. It brings together contributions from leading academics from various disciplines and policy-makers, and key participants in the process from the European Commission and the European Parliament.

The Political Economy of the Common Agricultural Policy

The Political Economy of the Common Agricultural Policy PDF

Author: Fernando Collantes Gutiérrez

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9781003015246

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What is the balance of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy more than half a century after its birth? Does it illustrate the virtues of the European model of coordinated capitalism, as opposed to US-style liberal capitalism? Or is it an incoherent set of instruments that exert diverse negative impacts and, like Frankenstein's monster, seems to have escaped the control of its designers? The Political Economy of the Common Agricultural Policy does not criticize the CAP from the liberal standpoint that views most public interventions in the economy as bad for efficiency and welfare. The CAP has been costly to Europeans, both as consumers and as taxpayers, and has also generated a number of negative impacts upon third countries, but these costs and impacts have been more moderate than is suggested. This book proposes that the issue with the CAP is not a generic problem of coordinating capitalism but, instead, a more specific problem of low-quality coordination. The text argues that profound reform of the European Union's institutions and policies is required to counter the rapid rise of a more Eurosceptical state of mind but - in the case of agricultural policy - history casts serious doubts on the capacity of the European network of agriculture-related politicians to lead such a reform. This key work is essential reading for researchers, graduate students, and master's level docents of the Common Agricultural Policy and - more broadly - European Union policy and reform.

The Political Economy of Agricultural and Food Policies

The Political Economy of Agricultural and Food Policies PDF

Author: Johan Swinnen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-05-24

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1137501022

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Food and agriculture have been subject to heavy-handed government interventions throughout much of history and across the globe, both in developing and in developed countries. Today, more than half a trillion US dollars are spent by some governments to support farmers, while other governments impose regulations and taxes that hurt farmers. Some policies, such as price regulations and tariffs, distribute income but reduce total welfare by introducing economic distortions. Other policies, such as public investments in research, food standards, or land reforms, may increase total welfare, but these policies come also with distributional effects. These distributional effects influence the preferences of interest groups and in turn influence policy decisions. Political considerations are therefore crucial to understand how agricultural and food policies are determined, to identify the constraints within which welfare-enhancing reforms are possible (or not), and finally to understand how coalitions can be created to stimulate growth and reduce poverty.

The Political Economy Of Agricultural Trade And Policy

The Political Economy Of Agricultural Trade And Policy PDF

Author: Hans J Michelmann

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2019-07-11

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1000232549

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This book presents a descriptive analysis of the political economy of the European Community, the U.S. and Canada. It describes the structural changes and the crises in agriculture and focuses on impact of GATT on agricultural policy and trade in the post-Second World War era.

The Common Agricultural Policy

The Common Agricultural Policy PDF

Author: Grace Skogstad

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1317988531

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The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a unique agricultural policy worldwide. For many years, its status as the only common European Community (EC) policy governed by EC institutions put it at the heart of European integration. Today the CAP is not the only common European Union (EU) policy. Even while it remains the sole instance of a regionally integrated agricultural policy, the CAP no longer embodies the same degree of cross-national harmonization of agricultural policy among EC/EU member states that it once did. The CAP has undergone policy reforms in the past two decades and these reforms have spawned a host of questions. What has caused the CAP to reform? How path-breaking are CAP reforms? Are they consistent with founding CAP goals or do they encompass new ideas about agriculture’s place in the economy and society? And what are the consequences of agricultural policy reforms: for European farmers, consumers and taxpayers; for European ‘public goods’ such as environmental sustainability and preservation of rural communities and landscapes; and for third parties outside the EU, including the WTO? This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

The Common Agricultural Policy

The Common Agricultural Policy PDF

Author: Wyn Grant

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 1997-06-30

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1349257311

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This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the Common Agricultural Policy which imposes high costs on taxpayers and consumers yet has proved very difficult to reform. Particular emphasis is placed on new developments affecting the shape of the CAP, including the outcome of the GATT Uruguay Round negotiations, Eastern enlargement, and developments in environmental policy. A distinctive feature of the book is the attention given to situating European agriculture within its global context and in relation to the food processing and agricultural supply industries.

The Perfect Storm

The Perfect Storm PDF

Author: Johan F. M. Swinnen

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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For decades, the Common Agricultural Policy came in for a significant amount of criticism for consuming a disproportionate share of the EU budget, introducing market distortions, wasting government funds and contributing to rural inequities. Nevertheless, it survived many attempts to abolish it, and acquired a reputation for being virtually impossible to reform in any meaningful way. However, during the tenure of Franz Fischler as European Commissioner for Agriculture from 1995 to 2004, the most radical reform in the history of the CAP was implemented. This book is the first to review the reforms that were implemented, to analyse how they came about and to explain which forces made them possible. It brings together perspectives from inside and outside the policy community, including from those closely involved in the policy debates, and an interdisciplinary perspective from economists and political scientists. The authors are senior policy-makers and well-respected academics. The book gives some fascinating insights into what made the reforms possible, offers useful conclusions on what this implies for future attempts at reform and finally, addresses the question of whether the Fischler reforms 'scrapped the CAP' or saved it.