Cross-National Policy Networks and the State: EU Social Policy Transfer to Poland and Hungary

Abstract: This article challenges optimistic claims about the power of nonstate actors in cross-border policy networks. In a pilot study of two most-likely cases, the article examines the social policy network between the European Union and Poland and Hungary prior to accession. Two dimensions guide the analysis: Whether states act as gatekeepers and whether national borders restrict communications. The article shows that while labor and employers easily communicate with the EU, contacts fail to cut across national borders. Network data show that the EU significantly controls the flow of communication, a fact that runs counter to the notion of networks as fluid entities that enable all actors to link freely with others. Governments and the EU have an interest in network construction and control. Only by tracking network contacts empirically, the article argues, are we able to estimate the capacities and limits of nonstate actors in transnational politics.