The Common Agricultural Policy has a major impact on the development of the agricultural sector in the countries of the European Union because this sector is significantly regulated in comparison with the sector of industry or services. A considerable part of the professional community deals with the question how the agricultural sector reacts to such form of regulation. The paper provides a more comprehensive synthesis of knowledge about the formation and development of the Common Agricultural Policy in order to create a comprehensive overview of the theoretical formation of this policy from the perspective of domestic and foreign authors.