1. Bureaucratic decision-making in the Council
2. The Council's committee system
3. Existing research on Council decision-making
4. Theoretical perspectives on committee decision-making
5. Sample selection
6. Describing the extent of committee decision-making
7. Explaining the variation in committee decision-making
8. Methodological issues
9. Agriculture
10. Environment
11. Economic and financial affairs
12. Summary and between-sector comparison
13. Discussion of research results and theory building
14. Conclusion.