"The Europeanization of domestic asylum policy: National executive power and two-level games"

Vink, Maarten P. (2001) "The Europeanization of domestic asylum policy: National executive power and two-level games" . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2001 (7th), May 31-June 2, 2001, pages 26, Madison, Wisconsin.

Abstract

This paper analyses the Europeanization of domestic asylum policy from both a top-down and a bottom-up perspective by taking into account the causes and consequences of European integration. The case of the Netherlands, a small but pro-active country, is studied to answer such questions as why member states have been eager to establish European asylum cooperation, why it has been so difficult to act collectively, and what has been the preliminary impact on domestic policy-making. The empirical evidence from this paper points in particular at the notion that Europeanization, albeit limited, enhances the effectiveness of domestic asylum policy at the expense of democratic legitimacy and humanitarian safeguards. Although national governments have pursued policies perhaps not that much more restrictive from those that they would have pursued in the absence of European cooperation, Putnam's metaphor of "two-level games" is employed to explain how they got away with it more easily.