ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to review the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) reform process during the 1980s, up to the MacSharry package approved in May 1992. It highlights the driving forces, both at national and international levels, that explain the main changes introduced in the CAP during the 1980s. The chapter analyzes the major steps of the reform process with special attention devoted to the approval of the MacSharry reform (MSR). It outlines some implications of the MSR together with a critical discussion of the most innovative features introduced in the Common Agriculture Policy. It aims to develop the analysis with reference to the general issue of the decoupling of agricultural policies and to the specific problems raised by the MSR in terms of implementation costs. With growth of the production potential of agricultures of developed countries, the “coupled” model of agricultural policy produces costs that are intolerable.
