On temporal determinants of European Union enlargement: The case of Turkey’s accession

Abstract: This paper aims at contributing to theoretical debates over why the European Union (EU) enlarges. Whereas existing theoretical approaches take a snapshot view of EU enlargement and focus on its synchronic determinants, this paper explores its temporal determinants. Developing a historical-institutionalist approach to EU enlargement, the paper claims that the enlargement process operates under the constraining weights of past policy choices. The paper examines and illustrates the relative merits of the existing approaches and the historical-institutionalist approach to EU enlargement through analysis of the Turkey–EU relations.

Royal Institute Elcano, Working Paper of the Elcano Royal Institute, 05.10.15: Turkey’s 10 years of EU accession negotiations: no end in sight http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/wcm/connect/6df797804a18db799e3b9e207baccc4c/WP14-2015-Chislett-Turkeys-10-years-of-EU-accession-negotiations-no-end-in-sight.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=6df797804a18db799e3b9e207baccc4c

---