Evaluating the Europeanization Effect

Abstract

If there has been an overriding objective to this book, it is in consciousness raising. We aim to place at the forefront of the study of European politics the contention that the student should start, and quite possibly end, with an analysis of the transitional nature of the European political region as a consequence of the interaction between its constituent states and the EU. We argue that the very legal-constitutional basis of this relationship is unique, not only amongst world regions in terms of its breadth and depth, but also in terms of the impact on its member states, whose study, either individually or comparatively, is shaped by the singular nature of their EU membership. The tool of analysis therefore is itself unique—Europeanization—which is part of a more generic, indeed paradigmatic, notion (see chap. 1). We do not dismiss the significance of the state as a vital component; we merely recognize the day-to-day interdependence of European political systems with the EU and utilize the notion of Europeanization as our analytical frame. Thus we address a “Post Integration Ontological Puzzle”—that is, we assume that European integration is underway and get on with the task of studying the dynamics of resultant domestic and EU power relations (Radaelli 2004).