This book engages in thecontroversies of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms,demonstrating how these are reiterated by mainstream theoretical approaches inthe field. The reforms that the EuropeanUnion's CAP underwent during the last threedecades were intended to make it less trade-distorting, more taxpayer-friendlyand more able to meet the new challenges of environmental concerns and ruraldevelopment/territorial cohesion. The outcome of the reforms has, however,contradicted these objectives, with the controversies being reiterated by themainstream theoretical approaches in the field. European Union's Common Agricultural Policy Reforms arguesthat these controversies are due to reductionist, rationalist and idealistassumptions with regard to the object of inquiry applied by mainstreamapproaches. It proposes an alternative critical approach that takes intoaccount the role of real material factors. Critical realism is not just analternative explanation of CAP reforms but an alternative theory of howexplanations can be made, which enables readers to reflect upon and endorse theresults of existing lines of research in proceeding towards deeper leveltheory.