Governance and Compliance Mechanisms as Drivers of Farmer Behavior Under the New Common Agricultural Policy: A Literature Review

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023–2027 replaces compliance-based oversight with a performance-based implementation model, supported by the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (PMEF), the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS), and remote sensing-based monitoring. This shift primarily concerns the relationship between the European Commission and the Member States; conditionality and administrative controls at the farm level remain in place. This narrative synthesis, guided by PRISMA principles, examines how these governance and compliance mechanisms relate to farmers’ attitudes, trust, and behavior. It is based on a search of the Web of Science Core Collection and includes 81 studies. The studies point to a major institutional shift, the benefits of which are contingent upon an incomplete coherence across governance levels, while control and audit mechanisms are frequently described as sources of administrative costs and complexity. Institutional trust and perceived fairness emerge as explanations for farmers’ reactions; however, the evidence is largely attitudinal, pertains to earlier periods of the CAP, and does not test trust as a mediator. Findings regarding the erosion of intrinsic motivation are mixed. Digitalization may reduce administrative burdens, but its effect on the perceived opacity of compliance verification has not yet been examined among farmers. We propose longitudinal, farm-level research and comparisons between Member States in Central and Eastern Europe and other Member States.