Post-exceptional politics in agriculture: an examination of the 2013 CAP reform

A core claim about agricultural policy making is that it is ‘compartmentalized’ and ‘exceptional’. In this picture, the policy process is insulated from other policy concerns, has a distinctive system of actors and institutional structures, and is rooted in extensive governmental intervention in the market and the redistribution of resources from taxpayers to food producers. Recently there have been suggestions that a ‘post-exceptional’ agricultural politics has emerged, which is more market-driven, has reduced state intervention, and where policies reflect influences relating to non-food issues such as the environment. This contribution discusses the concepts of compartmentalization and exceptionalism and then applies ‘indicators of change’ to a case study of the 2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It concludes that the reform provides evidence for ‘shallow’ post-exceptionalism where a historically persistent agricultural policy subsystem has opened up to new actors, incorporated some programme change but left the ideational framework largely intact.