The 2003 Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy: Against all Odds or Rational Explanations?

This article analyses the 2003 reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. On the basis of rational choice theory, it addresses to two basic questions: first, which processes led to the 2003 CAP reform? And second, how can the actual content of the reform — with, for example, increased bureaucratisation and more diffuse implementation — be accounted for? The article concludes that it is possible to rationally answer the two questions and that the external pressure resulting from the impending WTO negotiations represented a necessary, if insufficient, condition for reform. In order to arrive at an adequate explanation, an account of the policy entrepreneurship on the part of Commissioner Franz Fischler must also be given.