Coming together or drifting apart? The EU’s political integration capacity in Eastern Europe

Author (Person) ,
Series Title
Series Details Vol.24, No.2, February 2017, p278-296
Publication Date February 2017
ISSN 1350-1763
Content Type

Abstract:

This contribution assesses the EU’s external political integration capacity: its ability to promote democracy and governance effectiveness in non-member and new member states. Based on macro-quantitative data, we examine the political trajectory of Central European, South-east European, and post-Soviet countries. We find that democracy and governance effectiveness have improved overall in the past 20 years. However, Eastern Europeans have been moving on distinct sub-regional paths and have been unable to catch up with the old member states.

Our analysis of the EU impact shows a robust effect of EU accession conditionality. By contrast, we do not find a systematic effect of conditionality in the absence of membership incentives. Once countries become members, the EU’s political integration capacity weakens, too. Finally, we observe that the EU has a stronger effect on governance effectiveness than on democracy.

Source Link Link to Main Source http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2016.1265574
Subject Categories
Countries / Regions