Post-exceptionalism in the Common Agricultural Policy

The concept of post-exceptionalism denotes a partial transformation in which a policy sector which has enjoyed privileged policies and institutional arrangements, based on ideas justifying its exceptional status, has been partially but not completely ‘normalized’. In post-exceptional policies, old and new ideas, institutions, interests and policy instruments coexist. Originally, the Common Agricultural Policy was founded on the assumption that agriculture was an exceptional economic sector which required special treatment in terms of public policy. Since the early 1990s, the architecture of the CAP has changed significantly through a series of reforms. This paper analyses the changes and assesses the extent to which the CAP has transformed into to a post-exceptionalist policy along the four dimensions constituting the concept of post-exceptionalism – Ideas, institutions, interests and policy instruments. In the final section, the paper analyses whether the Green Deal, into which the post-2020 reform process has been integrated, is likely to reinforce the post-exceptionalist pathway of the CAP.