Historical Conditionalities and Political Implications of European Integration for South-Eastern Europe: A Conceptual Map

Transcription

1 Joint International Conference of Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Researchers, Craiova, September 2014 Historical Conditionalities and Political Implications of European Integration for South-Eastern Europe: A Conceptual Map Cătălina Maria Georgescu * ABSTRACT The paper discusses the key concepts, theories and models analysing the process and consequences of European integration for the organization and functioning of public organizations in South-Eastern European states studied on three pillars: the case of European Union Member States, the case of Candidate Countries and the case of potentially Candidate Countries. The research is an innovation as regards the scientific approaches on the transformation of the public organizations, through the re-orientation of the analytical perspective of institutional change, using the support of historical institutionalism and building on the working hypothesis which grants the value of independent variable to historical events, state structure, the European integration process, but also to local identities to account for the variations in the evolution of institutional structures. Following a path dependency-based approach, the study thus imposes the correlation of the interpretation of the impact of historical facts and South-Eastern Europe specificities (culture, mentality, identity, legislation), but also a theoretical specialization which assumes the use of key-concepts in the field of political sciences and public organizations. By articulating the role of Europeanization process, the impact of historical events in the respective geographical area, the developments of each state and the historical evolution of European establishment, the research aims at developing a conceptual map in the analysis of the institutional transformations of public organizations within the context of European integration. KEYWORDS Europeanization, historical institutionalism, public administration, path dependence, contingency, South-Eastern Europe. * Dr., University of Craiova, Craiova, Romania. 1

2 Introduction: building concepts and delimitating cases Starting from the assumption that Europe matters (Radaelli, 2000, Auel, 2006), European integration processes and consequences are subjects of seminal theoretical and empirical researches undergone on multiple directions of study: institutions creation and institutional change, strengthening administrative capacity, agenda-setting, political economy, Europeanization, public policy-making, policy implementation, multi-level governance, new public management, principal-agent relations, policy networks, new institutionalism analyses, sovereignty transfer. Without conceiving Europeanization as a replacement mechanism of the traditional sovereign state with its classical elements of democratic participation and territoriality, Borneman and Fowler (1997) analyse the practical fields of competing national interests organizing territoriality and peoplehood. Researches have been carried out in comparative perspective to identify South-Eastern Europe new Member States and/or Old Member States differences in integration patterns, as well as the convergence towards a European model (Adshead, 2005: 160). The paper discusses the key concepts, theories and models analysing the process and consequences of European integration for the organization and functioning of public organizations in South-Eastern European states studied on three pillars: the case of European Union Member States, the case of Candidate Countries and the case of potentially Candidate Countries. Using the support of historical institutionalism, the research is an innovation as regards the scientific approaches on the transformation of the public organizations, through the re-orientation of the analytical perspective of institutional change. The paper builds on the working hypothesis which grants the value of independent variable to historical events, state structure, the European integration process, but also to local identities to account for the variations in the evolution of institutional structures. Among the key concepts of European integration studies, Europeanization analyses the processes of adjustment, adaptation or download of European practices through a top-down perspective to which was added the bottom-up approach which assumes the upload of national policy interests, national cultures and voice (Goetz and Meyer-Sahling, 2008, Adshead, 2005: ). Path dependent approaches to European integration: building on existing institutions Following a path dependency-based approach, the study thus imposes the correlation of the interpretation of the impact of historical facts and South-Eastern Europe specificities (culture, mentality, identity, legislation), but also a theoretical specialization which assumes the use of key-concepts in the field of political sciences and public organizations. By articulating the role of Europeanization process, the impact of historical events in the respective geographical area, the developments of each state and the historical evolution of European establishment, 2

3 the research aims at developing a conceptual map in the analysis of the institutional transformations of public organizations within the context of European integration. It has been demonstrated that historical conditions, national factors and institutional characteristics account for the evolution of market liberalization processes (Belloc, Nicita and Parcu, 2013) determining scientists to consider that the current regulatory framework is path dependent (Adshead, 2005, Benz, 2004, Berglund, Gange and van Waarden, 2006, Böhm and Landwehr, 2014, Börzel and Risse, 2000, Bulmer, 1998, Camyar, 2010). EU conditionality mechanisms partly explain the different institutional patterns adopted by Member States, however other factors must be taken into account especially concerning multicultural identities and relations, cultural pluralism and national sovereignty prerequisites (Olimid, 2011: ). Historical institutionalism studies consider that Europeanization is path-dependent, building on causal relevance of preceding stages in a temporal sequence (Belloc, Nicita and Parcu, 2013: 136). The dynamics of integration was also linked to institutional complementarities (Belloc et all., 2013), organizational routine and policy learning (Berglund, Gange and van Waarden, 2006). EU regulation and policy-learning are corroborated (selected for the cooperation process between national governments and supranational EU institutions) with the harmonization of decision-making processes and institutions (Böhm and Landwehr, 2014). A different opinion is shared by those who analyse resistance to institutional change (Crespy, 2011). Studies on Europeanization phenomenon: building explanations State of the art reviews divides researches on Europeanization according to three levels: empirical, conceptual and explanatory-theoretical (Goetz and Meyer- Sahling, 2008). Adaptation of national institutions within the context of European integration has been analysed through new institutionalism approaches in the direction of national institutional and decision-making structures and system change (Adshead, 2005: , Börzel and Risse, 2000, Goetz and Meyer- Sahling 2008), institutional learning (Aligica, 2003: 87 99, Böhm, and Landwehr, 2014: 17-35), socialization processes (Adshead, 2005: ), institutional change and formal (Puetter, 2008: , Hungdah, 2004) and also informal adaptation (Auel, 2006: ), institutional vetoes and goodness-of-fit (Bailey, 2002: , Haverland, 2000: , Desmet, van Spanje and de Vreese, 2012: ), resistance to change and path-dependence (Camyar, 2010, Crespy, 2011, Dimitrakopoulos, 2001a: , Dimitrakopoulos, 2001b: ). Researches on institutional change triggered by EU membership were envisaged on four directions, at the level of formal institutional structures at the tiers of government, processes and procedures within the civil service, codes and guidelines as regards the Cabinet, ministers and civil service, and the cultural dimension (Bulmer and Burch, 1998: , Adshead, 2005: ). Europeanization as a middle-range theory is emphasized in studies aimed at identifying the influence of EU for the domestic policy-making and policy- 3

4 enforcement processes (Adshead, 2005: 159). The widest accepted working definition of Europeanization asserts this phenomenon as processes of (a) construction, (b) diffusion and (c) institutionalization of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms, styles, ways of doing things and shared beliefs and norms which are first defined and consolidated in the EU policy process and then incorporated in the logic of domestic discourse, identities, political structures and public policies (Radaelli, 2000, also Radaelli in Boussaguet et all., 2009: 108), thus molding the triad politics-polity-policy in the definition. A more restrictive approach defines Europeanization as a process reorienting the direction and shape of politics to the degree the EC political and economic dynamics become part of the organizational logic of national politics and policy-making (Ladrech, 1994: 69). Researches delimitated Europeanization effects according to intra- and interstate dimensions, the first category surprising governance changes within the multilayered European framework, whereas the latter bringing forwards transversal effects and opportunities discovered through the widening of European integration (Adshead, 2005: ). Moreover, according to the effects of integration, studies are divided along the dichotomies of: de-parliamentarisation vs. reparliamentarisation, bureaucratization vs. politicisation, centralization vs. diffusion (Goetz and Meyer-Sahling, 2008). Europeanization and patterns of integration: towards a re-configuration of the conceptual map Scholars were also eager in delimitating the Europeanization concept by narrowing the conceptual limits of the term; thus, Europeanization was delimitated from convergence, harmonization, EU policy-making and political integration thus aiming at conceptualizing the domains in which it produces effects, the extent and direction of the process (Radaelli, 2000). By identifying the domains in which Europeanization matters, Radaelli (2000) fills in a conceptual representation of the integration process in which domestic political structures (the author points towards institutions especially towards national legislatives and executives as traditional receivers of the integration effects, public administration, intergovernmental relations, the state s legal structure and structures of representation ), but also cognitive and normative structures, national discourse, national collective identities meet (European) public policy-making. The proportions of domestic change and its directions were conceptualized under the form of inertia, absorption, transformation and retrenchment (Radaelli, 2000, Börzel and Risse, 2000). Along this line, Radaelli (2000) reviews the literature and de-constructs the conceptual meanings of these notions, by defining absorption as adaptation or accommodation, while retrenchment designates the resistance to change. The development of a conceptual matrix also considers the mechanisms of change (Radaelli, 2000) visualising the Europeanization process under the form of goodness of fit (Bailey, 2002), drawing on European 4

5 models, the creation of domestic opportunity structures and directives framing integration (Knill and Lehmkuhl, 1999), mechanisms of coercion, mimetism and normative pressures (Radaelli, 2000), and also explanations through cognitive convergence (Radaelli, 2000). The de-parliamentarisation/re-parliamentarisation dichotomy appeared in European studies on the costs and benefits associated to integration. National legislatives were seen as being deprived of some traditional competences within the EU multi-level framework (Duina, Oliver, 2005: ), having to adapt strategically as veto-players (Benz, 2004: ) or to develop new patters of interactions in order to achieve national interests (Auel and Benz, 2005: , Auel, 2006: ). Control of the agenda, political power-opposition competition, coalition gaming, the exercise of parliamentary veto-power or negotiation perspectives, and also the exercise of governmental legislative options (Gîrleșteanu, 2011: ) were used as indicators in explanations on the institutional adjustment determined by European multi-level governance framework influences on legislative patterns of interaction (Auel and Benz, 2005: ), institutional adjustments as regards constitutional and administrative law and the dynamics of the national political system (Fink-Hafner, 2005). Political parties are also involved in these patterns of relations (Gherghe, 2013: 19-24). Implicitly, authors were interested in explaining the selection of diverging patterns of parliamentary-executive relations that had to cope with the dichotomic alternatives of either legitimacy deficit or European deception (Auel and Benz, 2005: ). Changing patterns of governance brought about by Europeanization (Adshead, 2005: ) or by the introduction of democratic and market-oriented institutions in the post-communist period were analysed in empirical studies aimed at developing models that can explain the adoption of new values and behaviours through institutional adaptation through learning processes or institutional changes (Aligica, 2003: 87 99). The post-communist import of democracy and democratic institutions, multi-party system and rule of law were milestones in the design of post-communist constitutional order (Olimid, 2014: 53-64), establishing a substantive correlation between quality national political institutions and citizens satisfaction (Desmet, van Spanje & de Vreese, 2012: ). Constitutional principles, political institutions and the organization and functioning of public administrations follow distinct patterns for South-Eastern Europe new Member States (Gîrleșteanu, 2012: ). Political institutions establishment and the patterns of legislative-executive relations explain the exercise and power of the scrutiny over European affairs through a principal-agent delegation model (Grossman and Sauger, 2007). Post-communist constitutional orders and constitutions-building had to be re-established in order to cope with the requests of sovereignty transfer as a prerequisite of the EU membership as regards South- Eastern Europe new Member States (Gherghe, 2012: , also Hungdah, 2004). 5

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