The purpose of this article is to address problems with research on the 'Europeanization' of foreign policy. The first section shows that Europeanization defined as a process of incorporation of European Union norms, practices and procedures into the domestic level is more useful than any of the other 'faces' of the concept discussed in the literature. The second section shows that while Europeanization is applicable to the study of foreign policy, the adaptational pressure model is not; that Europeanization should not be identified exclusively with socialization; and that it should be distinguished from 'uploading'. The final section shows how process tracing the observable implications of alternative explanations of foreign policy change for three dimensions of the policy-making process -the definition of the policy problem, the alternatives considered and the manner in which the latter were assessed -makes it possible to establish the causal significance of the EU.
While the literature on Europeanization has exhibited considerable awareness of the methodological challenge of establishing causal relations between non-binding EU stimuli and domestic change, less work has been done on how this challenge might be met. This article contributes to the literature's attempts to meet this challenge by: 1) reformulating four explanations of Europeanization based on four distinct causal mechanisms (instrumental learning, social learning, naming and shaming and peer pressure); 2) specifying their observable implications for three intervening steps between EU stimuli and change in national policy (the definition of the policy problem, the alternative courses of action considered and the manner in which they were assessed); 3) defending process tracing against critiques of its usefulness for research on Europeanization; and 4) providing practical guidelines on how process tracing can be used to test these four explanations empirically, using examples from employment policy, where non-binding EU stimuli feature most prominently.
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