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The conditions of the effectiveness of EU democratic conditionality in Central and Eastern European countries in the context of EU enlargement

Krysko, V. (2008) The conditions of the effectiveness of EU democratic conditionality in Central and Eastern European countries in the context of EU enlargement.

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Abstract:Recently democratic conditionality, that is the dependable perspective of becoming an EU member after a democratic reform, has become a buzz-word in the study of European Union enlargement, evoking a constantly growing interest in the academic world and the political circles. Despite the fact that EU democratic conditionality has been acknowledged as one of the most powerful foreign policy tools exercised within the European arena, there is a rapidly growing concern over the effectiveness of conditionality due to diverging record of its impact on policy change in accession countries and policy areas. In order to address this concern, current master's research investigates the causal conditions of the effectiveness of EU democratic conditionality in the 3 countries of Central and Eastern European region subject to this policy - Latvia, Romania and Ukraine. Being based on the two most widespread models found in the contemporary literature on democratic conditionality - the external incentives model and the social influence model - the research applies the method of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to investigate the conditions under which governments in Central and Eastern Europe have complied with EU democratic requirements. The study subsequently discovers that a credible perspective of EU accession combined with low domestic power costs for the target governments have been necessary conditions for compliance. Thus, the investigation corroborates the external incentives model. Additionally, a high commitment to European community has proved to be sufficient condition for compliance even when the costs of the governments were high. Country's economic interdependence with the EU has been also found necessary for the effective democratic conditionality, unlike the third condition of the social influence model - societal salience - which has appeared to be inessential for compliance.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:88 social and public administration
Programme:Public Administration MSc (60020)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/59092
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