Societal Empowerment and Europeanization: Revisiting the EU's Impact on Democratization

Noutcheva, Gergana

doi:10.1111/jcms.12322

Cited by 26 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(42 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The conditionality principle obliges candidates to implement the accumulated EU legislation known as the acquis communautaire in order to become member states. EU conditionality and legislative coercion after membership stimulate a profound process of societal empowerment (Noutcheva 2016) through which political elites in domestic governmental institutions and nongovernmental advocacy networks adopt the normative scripts (and the values they embody) created by EU institutions and spread them via domestic media discourses (Vasilev 2016). Finally, the population at the grassroots level is exposed to the media and thus internalises these norms and values.…”

Section: Cultural Convergencementioning

confidence: 99%

United in diversity? The convergence of cultural values among EU member states and candidates

Akaliyski

2018

European J Political Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The European Union (EU) is considered to be a unique economic and political union that integrates most European countries. This article focuses on the cultural aspect of European integration, which has been increasingly debated over the course of deepening and widening integration and in the context of the legitimation crisis of the EU. Among the main goals of the EU is to promote certain values, which raises the question of whether it has been efficient in (or enabled) reducing cultural value gaps among the participating countries. World polity and institutional isomorphism theories suggest that cultural values may trickle down in a vertical manner from the institutions of the EU to its member states and candidates. Furthermore, hybridisation theory postulates that values diffuse horizontally through intensified interactions enabled by the EU. These two perspectives imply the possibility of cultural convergence among countries associated with the EU. By contrast, the culture clash thesis assumes that differences in cultural identity prevent value convergence across countries; growing awareness of such differences may even increase the pre‐existing cultural value distances. To test these different scenarios, distances in emancipative and secular values are compared across pairs of countries using combined repeated cross‐sectional data from the European Values Study and the World Values Survey gathered between 1992 and 2011. This study finds that the longer a country has been part of the EU, the more closely its values approximate those of the EU founding countries, which in turn are the most homogenous. Initial cultural distance to the founders’ average values appears irrelevant to acquiring membership or candidacy status. However, new member states experienced substantial cultural convergence with old member states after 1992, as did current candidates between 2001 and 2008. Since 1992, nations not participating in the integration process have diverged substantially from EU members, essentially leading to cultural polarisation in Europe. The findings are independent of (changes in) economic disparities and suggest the importance of cultural diffusion as one of the fundamental mechanisms of cultural change. This empirical study contributes to the literature on European integration, political and sociological theories of globalisation, and cross‐cultural theories of societal value change.

show abstract

Section: Cultural Convergencementioning

confidence: 99%

United in diversity? The convergence of cultural values among EU member states and candidates

Akaliyski

2018

European J Political Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(), seems to have a beneficial association with attitudes related to corruption in most scenarios but it is not related to the dilemma between transparency and sociability. Extant work underlining the importance of linkage mechanisms (Levitz and Pop‐Eleches, ; Noutcheva, ) does not focus on how different types of linkage are associated with attitudinal change in a uniform way. By looking at the different forms of EU exposure, we see that there is an association with attitudes only when the type of exposure is a more intensive, structured, and sustained engagement with the EU, that is, through harmonization activities.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformation All the Way Down? European Union Integration and the Professional Socialization of Municipal Health Officials in Serbia

Fagan

Sircar

2019

J of Common Market Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article assesses whether different types of exposure to European Union (EU) modes of socialization are associated with differences in attitudes towards corruption, using Serbia as case study. Drawing on a survey of Serbian municipal health-care officials, the article complements existing research on the impact of EU conditionality on attitudes at the national level, while also contributing to the understanding of the impact of domestic variables on Europeanization. Thus, the article's contribution to the wider literature is to interrogate the premise that in order to deliver substantive reform, attitudes and practices need to be changed via exposure to EU tutelage and processes. Our data suggest that the type of interaction that officials have with the EU and its processes matters. While those involved in EU harmonization activities were significantly more critical of clientelistic behaviour, there is no significant association between attitudes and doing daily EU-related work or attending EU training.

show abstract

“…It is also noteworthy that there is no significant relationship between IOs that use financial assistance and membership conditionality and democratic trajectories in these new democracies. Conditionality in particular is theorized to be an especially powerful form of democracy promotion, as exemplified in particular by the EU's approach to democracy (Dimitrova and Pridham, 2004;Ekiert, 2008;Levitz and Pop-Eleches, 2010;Noutcheva, 2016). Nevertheless, the results suggest that the impact of these strategies is neutral at best rather than positive and significant, as existing research would predict.…”

Section: Extension: Variation In Io Democracy Promoting Toolsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…This case study leverages process tracing, comparative case studies, and the synthetic control method, all of which have been used to trace causal mechanisms linking an explanatory variable to the outcome of interest (Mahoney, 2000) or to more closely approximate the counterfactual (Abadie et al, 2015;Ragin, 1987;Seawright and Gerring, 2008). According to existing research, of all IOs, the EU is one of, if not the best, at promoting transitions to democracy and supporting further democratic progress among its member states (Dimitrova and Pridham, 2004;Ekiert, 2008;Levitz and Pop-Eleches, 2010;Noutcheva, 2016;Smith, 2001). As such, this should be a particularly hard case for my theory: if there is evidence linking the EU to backsliding, this would provide further support for my theory.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Unintended Consequences of Democracy Promotion: International Organizations and Democratic Backsliding

Meyerrose

2020

Comparative Political Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the end of the Cold War, international organizations (IOs) have engaged in unprecedented levels of democracy promotion, and research overwhelmingly links them to positive democratic outcomes. However, this increased emphasis on democracy has more recently been accompanied by rampant illiberalism and a sharp rise in cases of democratic backsliding in new democracies. What explains democratic backsliding in an age of unparalleled international support for democracy? Backsliding occurs when democratic institutions are weakened or eroded by elected officials, resulting in an illiberal or diminished form of democracy. I argue that IOs that support democracy unintentionally make backsliding more likely by neglecting to promote democratic institutions other than executives and elections, increasing executive power, and limiting states’ domestic policy options, which stunts institutional development. I find membership in IOs associated with democracy promotion makes backsliding more likely, decreases checks on executive power, and limits domestic policy options and party development in new democracies.

show abstract

Societal Empowerment and Europeanization: Revisiting the EU's Impact on Democratization

Cited by 26 publications

References 46 publications

United in diversity? The convergence of cultural values among EU member states and candidates

United in diversity? The convergence of cultural values among EU member states and candidates

Transformation All the Way Down? European Union Integration and the Professional Socialization of Municipal Health Officials in Serbia

The Unintended Consequences of Democracy Promotion: International Organizations and Democratic Backsliding

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About