POLICY CONVERGENCE IN EUROPEAN EMERGING POLITIES: A CONTENT ANALYSIS ON SELECTED CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION STRUCTURE

Abstract

The paper starts from the hypothesis that the viability of emerging territorial units depends on the way their members reach a converging approach towards issues of common concern. Based on previous results, we rank ten selected cross-border cooperation structures (CBCS) according to their institutional strength as a measure of assessment of their viability as polity. Data are then collected for each CBCS for three areas of cooperation, i.e. economy, society, and environment, in the form of policy documents. The analysis uses text mining techniques to explore the content of documents on each selected region and on each areas of cooperation. The results are further explored inside a thematic mapping of clusters, which is analysed through content analysis. The goal is to investigate and assess what is the cross-border cooperation level of policy convergence inside EU selected case studies, based on the emerging themes.

Keywords

• European integration
• policy agenda
• polity