The Common Agricultural Policy: Continuity and Change is a major retrospective analysis of the CAP since its inception, set against the background of agricultural policy in Western Europe since the end of the Second World War. The topics covered include the development of the CAP, in particular the early dominance of the market policy contrary to the original intention; the struggle to introduce a structural policy and its subsequent unsatisfactory record; the uneasy relationship between market policy and trade policy; the question of agricultural incomes; and the broadening of policy horizons since the mid-1980s, particularly to include environmental issues.

The book concludes with a discussion of some unresolved issues, including the role and appropriateness of a sectoral policy in today's circumstances.