Description
Book SynopsisEurope Undivided analyzes how an enlarging EU has facilitated a convergence toward liberal democracy among credible future members of the EU in Central and Eastern Europe. It reveals how variations in domestic competition put democratizing states on different political trajectories after 1989, and how the EU''s leverage eventually influenced domestic politics in liberal and particularly illiberal democracies. In doing so, Europe Undivided illuminates the changing dynamics of the relationship between the EU and candidate states from 1989 to 2004, and challenges policymakers to manage and improve EU leverage to support democracy, ethnic tolerance, and economic reform in other candidates and proto-candidates such as the Western Balkan states, Turkey, and Ukraine. Albeit not by design, the most powerful and successful tool of EU foreign policy has turned out to be EU enlargement - and this book helps us understand why, and how, it works.
Trade ReviewEurope Undivided is an exemplary work of the new comparative-international politics. It is a subtle and substantial analysis of how asymmetric interdependence and meritocratic European Union membership criteria combined to enhance the influence of the EU on domestic political reforms in Eastern Europe. * Robert O. Keohane, Professor of International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School *
In this important study, Vachudova develops an original and compelling analysis of how variations in domestic competition and changes in EU leverage combined to shape postcommunist political and economic pathways in East Central Europe. * Valerie Bunce, Professor and Chair of Government, Aaron Binenkorb Chair of International Studies, Cornell University *
A scrupulous, clearly organized, and highly informative _ analysis of one of the great success stories of our time. _ Vachudova combines the methods of comparative politics and_ international relations to explore the very direct _ connections between political change in Central and Eastern Europe and the influence of the European Union over the _ fifteen years from the velvet revolutions of 1989 to the _ eastward enlargement of the EU in 2004. * Timothy Garton _ Ash, Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford, _ and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University_ *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Political Competition and the Reform Trajectories of Postcommunist States ; 2. Liberal and Illiberal Democracy After Communism ; 3. The Passive Leverage of the European Union ; 4. The Impact of Passive Leverage: EU Relations with Liberal and Illiberal States 1989-1994 ; 5. The Active Leverage of the European Union ; 6. The Impact of Active Leverage I: Making Political Systems More Competitive 1994-1998 ; 7. The Impact of Active Leverage II: Shaping Reform of the State and the Economy 1994-2004 ; 8. The Enlargement Endgame and the Future of an Enlarged EU ; Conclusion ; Bibliography
