This paper uses public choice theories to explain why agricultural subsidies were centralised and why this hinders reform. It shows that the Commission is not responsible for the expansion of the CAP by arguing that budget‐maximising behaviour is irrational in the circumstances and that bureau shaping explains its stance on reform. The input process and the success of agricultural groups vis‐à‐vis consumer and taxpayer groups is explained using both the pluralist and Olsonian account of interest group politics. The conclusion analyses the latest difficulties in achieving reform at Berlin and the prospects for reform.

Book reviewed in this articles: The Readable Maths and Statistics Book, by Barry Edwards. An Introduction too Data Analysis, by Bruce D. Bowen & Herbert F. Weisberg The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures by Mike Brake. Law and Society: Readings in the Sociology of Law by Colin Campbell and Paul Wiles (eds.). The State, the Family and Education by Miriam E. David. The Sociology of Women: an introduction by Sara Delamont. Attitudes to Class in the English Novel, from Walter Scott to David Storey by Mary Eagleton and David Pierce. Classifications in Their Social Context by Roy F. Ellen and David Reason (eds.). Symbolic Classification by Rodney Needham. Sociology: Its Nature, Scope and Elements by Ronald Fletcher Sociology: The Study of Social Systems by Ronald Fletcher. The Making of Post‐Christian Britain: A history of the secularization of modern society by Alan D. Gilbert. The Literacy Myth. Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth‐Century City by Harvey J. Graff. Gender and Class Consciousness by Pauline Hunt. Historical Research on Social Mobility: Western Europe and the USA in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, by Hartmut Kaelble. The Village and the State: Administration, Ethnicity and Politics in an Israeli Co‐operative Village by Leonard Mars. The Breaking of the Image by David Martin A Christian Social Perspective by Alan Storkey Theories of Trade Unionism. A sociology of industrial relations by Michael Poole. The Ceremonial Order of the Clinic. Parents, Doctors and Medical Bureaucracies by P. M. Strong. The Social Production of Art by Janet Wolff. Culture by Raymond Williams.