The Europeanization of Politics: Building a Terminology for European Studies

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of Europeanisation, one of the key concepts developed within the European Studies in the last ten years or so, since the adoption and entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty. The fi rst part of the article deals with various models of Europeanisation in a context extending beyond the conceptual framework of the European Union, within which the phenomenon of Europeanisation arises. Therefore, the author attempts to develop a typology of broader approaches to the identifi cation of the phenomenon and process of Europeanisation, which includes six conceptions thereof: the fi rst approach is a geographical-political one, where Europeanisation is seen as a change in outer borders of Europe, from the reduction of Europe to the countries of Western Europe and Central Europe, to the extension of the concept of Europe to marginal countries; the second approach links the concept of Europeanisation with the development of political institutions on the European level. The third defi nition identifi es Europeanisation as an export of various forms of political organisation, a process which proceeds from the experience of European colonisation to the diff usion of European values as a role model for other continents; the fourth model of Europeanisation is the identifi cation with the project of European unifi cation, i. e. the process of integration which ends up in a federal, unifi ed Europe; the fi fth subtype is the penetration of national systems of governance by the European model of multilevel governance, which becomes manifest in the adaptation, convergence and harmonisation of the political and legal systems of member nations. The author elaborates on this classic typology by adding the sixth approach, which he calls “retrospective Europeanisation”. It involves Europeanisation as identifi cation with traditional European values that existed before EC and EU, primarily with the preintegration traditional, cultural and religious identities. This Europeanisation is equivocal by its valency because it becomes manifest as a stimulus for change and transition onto the second stage of Europeanisation if it lasts for a limited period of time; if, in turn, it lasts too long, as in the case of Croatia, it slows down the second stage of Europeanisation involving the penetration of European models of governance and the concurrent building of the national model. The second part of the article deals with various defi nitions of Europeanisation that have stemmed from the fi eld of empirical research. Here too the author highlights fi ve types of defi nitions, which, however, are not mutually exclusive, but point to the complexity of the phenomenon. Finally, the author off ers a model of research which, in the case of Croatia, would test the validity of the Europeanisation concept and would show through comparative political analysis the impact of the process of Europeanisation on the changes of the political system and the classic conception of politics in Croatia, as a component of the process of building a terminology for European Studies