%0 Journal Article %A Börzel, Tanja A. %A Schimmelfennig, Frank %D 2017 %T Coming together or drifting apart? The EU’s political integration capacity in Eastern Europe %U https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Coming_together_or_drifting_apart_The_EU_s_political_integration_capacity_in_Eastern_Europe/4626307 %R 10.6084/m9.figshare.4626307.v1 %2 https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/7526638 %K Conditionality %K democracy %K Eastern Europe %K European Union %K governance effectiveness %X

This contribution assesses the EU’s external political integration capacity: its ability to promote democracy and governance effectiveness in non-member and new member states. Based on macro-quantitative data, we examine the political trajectory of Central European, South-east European, and post-Soviet countries. We find that democracy and governance effectiveness have improved overall in the past 20 years. However, Eastern Europeans have been moving on distinct sub-regional paths and have been unable to catch up with the old member states. Our analysis of the EU impact shows a robust effect of EU accession conditionality. By contrast, we do not find a systematic effect of conditionality in the absence of membership incentives. Once countries become members, the EU’s political integration capacity weakens, too. Finally, we observe that the EU has a stronger effect on governance effectiveness than on democracy.

%I Taylor & Francis