AREA STUDIES EUROPEANIZATION; Or, ‘differential Europe’ Esther Versluis

Area Studies - Europeanization2 What is ‘Europeanization’? The main question of the ‘Europeanization’ research agenda: How does the European Union and European integration generally affect domestic policies, politics, and polities?

Area Studies - Europeanization3 Outline of the lecture 1)Analysis of the Europeanization research agenda 2)Case 1: impact of EU environmental policy on national policies 3)Case 2: impact of EU membership on national identities 4)Conclusion

Area Studies - Europeanization4 Theorizing the EU  From ‘grand theories’ …  … via the ‘governance turn’ …  … to ‘middle-range theories’ …  … to ‘Europeanization’.

Area Studies - Europeanization5 Europeanization  EU / European policy as independent variable  Since mid-1990s  Uploading versus downloading  Europeanization  convergence or harmonization

Area Studies - Europeanization6 Definition?  As many definitions as authors… ‘Europeanization is the domestic adaptation to European regional integration’ (Vink & Graziano, 2007: 7) Commonalities:  Concern with domestic adjustment processes  Institutionalist analysis

Area Studies - Europeanization7 What can be ‘Europeanized’?  Policies  standards, resources, instruments, policy problems, problem-solving approaches, etc.  Politics  processes of interest formation and representation, public discourses, etc.  Polities  political institutions, judicial structures, public administrations, collective identities, etc.

Area Studies - Europeanization8 Possible outcomes of Europeanization Magnitude of domestic change (Radaelli) retrenchment inertia absorption transformation  

Area Studies - Europeanization9 Example 1: policies  Focus of analysis: what is the impact of EU environmental policy on member states’ policies?  Does change take place in the member states due to the introduction of EU environmental policy?  How to study domestic change?

Area Studies - Europeanization10 Case studies (Knill & Lehmkuhl, 2002) 1)Drinking Water Directive 2)Directive on the Freedom of Access to Environmental Information 3)Environmental Management and Auditing System In: United Kingdom & Germany

Area Studies - Europeanization11 How to study domestic change? Two-step approach (Knill & Lehmkuhl) Step 1: Analyzing the “degree of fit” The lower the fit, the higher the adaptational pressure (a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for change)

Area Studies - Europeanization12 “Goodness of fit” UKGermany Drinking Watermisfitfit Access to information fitmisfit EMASfitmisfit

Area Studies - Europeanization13 Degree of domestic change UKGermany Drinking Waterdelayed transformation fit Access to information fitinertia EMASfittransformation

Area Studies - Europeanization14 How to explain domestic change? Rational choice institutionalism 1)multiple veto- points 2)facilitating formal institutions Sociological institutionalism 1)change agents 2)political culture based on consensus Step 2: Identifying the “mediating factors”

Area Studies - Europeanization15 Main explaining mediating factors Which mediating factors influenced the presence or absence of domestic change in our cases?  Presence of absence of change agents  Lack or presence of formal facilitating institutions

Area Studies - Europeanization16 Example 2: polity  Focus of analysis: what is the impact of the EU on national identities? (case study from Risse, 2001)  Does change take place in member state identities due to membership of the EU?  How to study this?

Area Studies - Europeanization17 Case studies  UK Nationalist concept of identity No adaptation of British identity to EU  Germany Reconstruction of national identity since WW II: ‘European Germany’  France Reshaping from nationalist identity to an incorporation of ‘Europe’ in French identity

Area Studies - Europeanization18 Conclusions In area studies:  Realize the importance of the goodness of fit (and the adaptational pressure)  Realize the impact of available mediating factors  Europeanization as a tool to study the relationship between the EU and your country (as well as a tool to understand differences between countries)