A never-ending story of reforms: on the wicked nature of the Common Agricultural Policy

Abstract In early 2024, European farmers protested against the current agricultural system and mainly the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), criticising its restrictive regulations. While economic theory has explained the CAP design by focusing on agricultural sector peculiarities, it overlooks social and political factors complicating agricultural policy-making. This perspective develops a multifactorial framework to address these complexities and highlights the need for better collaboration, communication, and empirical, interdisciplinary evidence for successful agricultural policy-making.