"What does the case of Slovakia tell us about the EU’s Active Leverage?"

Haughton, Tim. (2007) "What does the case of Slovakia tell us about the EU’s Active Leverage?". In: UNSPECIFIED, Montreal, Canada. (Unpublished)

Preview

PDF Download (168Kb) | Preview

Abstract

[From the introduction]. This short paper seeks to reflect on the experience of Slovakia and highlights what that particular case has taught us about the active leverage of the EU. I recognize that unpicking causation between domestic and European arenas is fraught with methodological difficulties (Haverland, 2006). Unlike our colleagues from chemistry, as political scientists we are not afforded the luxury to isolate and remove individual ingredients and then re-run experiments to see if the results change, hence identifying chains of causation is extremely difficult and tends to lead to conclusions, which are vague, hedged and less than robust. Bearing that caveat in mind, however, I venture a few arguments based on a close observation of the Slovak case. Firstly, building on the helpful distinction between political2 conditionality and acquis conditionality, I suggest that the Slovak case demonstrates the power of acquis conditionality, but the limits of the ‘transformative power’ (Grabbe, 2006) of political conditionality. Indeed, acquis conditionality may be more influential in cases where political conditionality is perceived to have had an influence. Secondly, the EU has very little impact on domestic party politics beyond influencing the choice of coalition partners, but even here the impact of the EU is probably exaggerated. Thirdly, the power of the acquis conditionality varies depending on the clarity, consistency and ascribed salience of such laws.

Actions (login required)