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 U.S.-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 Euro-sceptical 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 masters-level docents of the Common Agricultural Policy and - more broadly - European Union policy and reform.
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 study of European integration produced much scholarly debate in the 1950s and '60s. The following two decades saw few works on European integration that included more elaborate discussions of theory and methodology; most studies in that period were fairly descriptive. In recent years there has been renewed theoretical interest in European integration. This book, however, is one of the first to discuss and apply various political-economy approaches explicitly to integration, including classical integration theory and modern public choice theories. Areas covered include common policies and decision making, as well as the external relations of the EU. The influence of the European Parliament, the concept of subsidiarity, trade policy, Economic and Monetary Union, reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, relations with EFTA and Eastern European countries, as well as enlargement, are all discussed. "Audience: " Of interest to both scholars and policy makers concerned with these issues.
The Political Economy of Integration in the European Union has gained a well-deserved reputation as the key textbook in the area of European studies, economics and politics. This new and fully revised edition comprehensively surveys recent changes Ð such
This book is the first to document the reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and to analyse the political and economic factors which determined the outcome of the negotiations. The policy (non-)reform will affect the world's global food security and agricultural commodity markets and will cost the EU 3.5 trillion Euro over the next 7 years. Contributors include top political negotiators and leading EU experts and academic analysts.
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.
Twenty-five experts, primarily based in the UK or Brussels, address fundamental questions about the evolution of policies and policy- making in the European Union, including how the processes and institutions are being reformed; how the Single Market is being completed and the plan to create an Economic and Monetary Union is being implemented; and whether the main policies of the EU face major modifications in the context of a possible enlargement to 27 or more members. Distributed by Ashgate. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Dit boek handelt over de invloeden van de nationale politieke houdingen op de gemeenschappelijke agrarische Europese politiek gedurende de 25 jaren tussen de Agrarische Akte in 1947 en het Verdrag van Toetreding in 1973 toen de Europese Gemeenschap groter werd
