Europeanization: Redefining the Research Agenda

1. Europeanization:Redefining the Research Agenda ELIAMEP, Athens Friday, February 8 Paolo Graziano Center for Comparative Political Research Department of Institutional Analysis and Public Management Bocconi University, Milano

2. Presentation outline • Europeanization and European studies • Conceptual issues • Theoretical issues • Empirical and methodological issues • Conclusion

3. Europeanization and EU studies • neofunctionalist, (liberal) intergovernmentalist and supranational governance approaches: main focus is the EU level • Europeanization looks primarely at the domestic level and domestic implementation of EU policies • subdisciplinary shift from international relations to comparative politics

4. Europeanization research ‘promises’ • better understanding of: • EU policy-making • national policy-making • transformation of European State • EU multilevel governance patters • Europeanization can (and has) been connected to: • EU and domestic policy analysis: policy change • EU polity building and national polity change analysis: institutional setting • EU and domestic politics: political actors’ strategies

5. Europeanization research pitfalls • conceptual confusion • ‘fuzzy’ methodology and causal links • lack of comparative studies state of the art: rich empirical or conceptual studies, but very limited cases of rich empirical AND conceptual studies

6. Conceptual issues • europeanization is not convergence nor mere EU integration • top-down and bottom-up process (i.e. construction and diffusion) • process is different from its (direct and indirect) effects • policy, polity and politics • Europeanization as a case of regionalization

7. Theoretical issues • Europeanization is not a theory yet... • ...but it builds on both neofunctionalist and intergovernmental theoretical assumptions. • Third step in regional integration theory?

8. Empirical issues • pressure for policy change... • ...but domestic differential impact. • ‘goodness of fit’: problem or solution? • endogenous (mediating) factors do matter • pressures for • national polities (state structures) • politics (political parties, interest groups and social movements)

9. Methodological issues • different nature of effects (direct and indirect): ex. cost containment and social policy • counterfactual reasoning (looking for alternative pressures for change) • broad and comparative research design • possibly cover both construction and diffusion phases of the process

10. Conclusion • Europeanization research has come of age… • …it regards not only policy analysis but also political and polity issues… • …but it is still quite ‘slippery’. • conceptual and empirical issues have to be dealt together in order to advance further.