Who you gonna call?: oligarchic clans as a bottom-up force of neighborhood Europeanization in Ukraine

"This paper argues that, in the absence of a strong membership incentive within the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), a top-down institutional convergence of CIS countries towards European standards - i.e. democracy and market economy - is unlikely to be successful. However, due to enlargement fatigue within the EU, the membership incentive is off the agenda for the CIS. Hence, the ENP has to initiate or to speed up a bottom-up institutional convergence by identifying bottom-up domestic forces that are willing and able to drive the convergence in a particular country. Ukraine, whose oligarchic clans are the main bottom-up forces behind institution building, is a case in point. After having supported the first wave of institutional reforms during the Orange Revolution, these bottom-up forces are facing great difficulties in forming sustainable coalitions for further institutional reforms. The paper shows that the EU could, by providing economic incentives rather than the membership incentive, exploit the strong business interests of the oligarchic clans in the EU markets and EU investment to motivate them to jointly drive institutional convergence from the bottom-up." (author's abstract

Neighbourhood Europeanization trough ENP - The Case of Ukraine

We contribute to the literature of European Studies by introducing the approach of Neighbourhood Europeanization. Based on insights from Membership and Enlargement Europeanization, we reveal important inconsistencies of Neighbourhood Europeanization through the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as well as a lack of robust empirical support for its effectiveness. We also define core dimensions and determinants of Neighbourhood Europeanization and implement this analytical framework for the case of Ukraine. Our analysis clearly demonstrates substantial asymmetries in the ENP for Ukraine across three dimensions we chose – democracy promotion, economic cooperation, and Justice and Home Affairs, which clearly reflect the inconsistency of the ENP concept, that is top-down formulation of EU interests combined with weak conditionality. However, our analysis shows that despite Ukraine’s growing frustration because of the lack of a membership perspective, there is a lot of room for keeping up Ukraine’s motivation for Europeanization reforms. Especially, widening and strengthening the linkage-mechanisms would allow to overcome ENP inconsistency and to improve the effectiveness of Neighborhood Europeanization.neighbourhood policy; enlargement; ideas; integration theory; Europeanization; Europeanization

Prospective NATO or EU Membership and Institutional Change in Transition Countries

This paper quantifies the impact of incentives related to potential membership on institutional change as measured by the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI). Based on a panel of 25 transition countries for the period from 1996 to 2008 we show that pre-accession incentives provided by EU and NATO clearly matter for institutional development. In addition, path-dependency determined by cultural norms may be overcome by economic liberalization while foreign aid seems to hamper institutional development.EU, NATO, transition economies, institutional change, governance

Prospective NATO or EU Membership and Institutional Change in Transition Countries

This paper quantifies the impact of incentives related to potential membership on institutional change as measured by the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI). Based on a panel of 25 transition countries for the period from 1996 to 2008 we show that pre-accession incentives provided by EU and NATOclearly matter for institutional development. In addition, path-dependency determined by cultural norms may be overcome by economic liberalization while foreign aid seems to hamper institutional development.EU,NATO, transition economies, institutional change,governance

the case of Ukraine

We contribute to the literature of European Studies by introducing the approach of Neighbourhood Europeanization. Based on insights from Membership and Enlargement Europeanization, we reveal important inconsistencies of Neighbourhood Europeanization through the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as well as a lack of robust empirical support for its effectiveness. We also define core dimensions and determinants of Neighbourhood Europeanization and implement this analytical framework for the case of Ukraine. Our analysis clearly demonstrates substantial asymmetries in the ENP for Ukraine across three dimensions we chose – democracy promotion, economic cooperation, and Justice and Home Affairs, which clearly reflect the inconsistency of the ENP concept, that is top-down formulation of EU interests combined with weak conditionality. However, our analysis shows that despite Ukraine’s growing frustration because of the lack of a membership perspective, there is a lot of room for keeping up Ukraine’s motivation for Europeanization reforms. Especially, widening and strengthening the linkage-mechanisms would allow to overcome ENP inconsistency and to improve the effectiveness of Neighborhood Europeanization

Neighbourhood Europeanization through ENP: the case of Ukraine

We contribute to the literature of European Studies by introducing the approach of Neighbourhood Europeanization. Based on insights from Membership and Enlargement Europeanization, we reveal important inconsistencies of Neighbourhood Europeanization through the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as well as a lack of robust empirical support for its effectiveness. We also define core dimensions and determinants of Neighbourhood Europeanization and implement this analytical framework for the case of Ukraine. Our analysis clearly demonstrates substantial asymmetries in the ENP for Ukraine across three dimensions we chose – democracy promotion, economic cooperation, and Justice and Home Affairs, which clearly reflect the inconsistency of the ENP concept, that is top-down formulation of EU interests combined with weak conditionality. However, our analysis shows that despite Ukraine’s growing frustration because of the lack of a membership perspective, there is a lot of room for keeping up Ukraine’s motivation for Europeanization reforms. Especially, widening and strengthening the linkage-mechanisms would allow to overcome ENP inconsistency and to improve the effectiveness of Neighborhood Europeanizatio

Prospective NATO or EU Membership and Institutional Change in Transition Countries

This paper quantifies the impact of incentives related to potential membership on institutional change as measured by the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI). Based on a panel of 25 transition countries for the period from 1996 to 2008 we show that pre-accession incentives provided by EU and NATO clearly matter for institutional development. In addition, path-dependency determined by cultural norms may be overcome by economic liberalization while foreign aid seems to hamper institutional development.EU, NATO, Transition Economies, Institutional Change, Governance

NATO als ein potenzieller Katalysator der institutionellen Konvergenz: der Fall Ukraine

Bei der Analyse des Transfers demokratischer und marktwirtschaftlicher Institutionen in die Transformationsländer konzentriert sich die Forschung nahezu ausschließlich auf die EU. Die Rolle der NATO als internationaler Akteur, der nach dem Ende des Kalten Krieges zunehmend neben den sicherheitspolitischen auch demokratische und marktwirtschaftliche Ziele verfolgt, könnte zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnen. Auch die NATO verlangt für eine Zusammenarbeit in jedem Integrationsschritt - von PfP bis Mitgliedschaft - die Übernahme bestimmter demokratischen und marktwirtschaftlichen Grundsätze. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht anhand der Ukraine den Beitrag der NATO an der institutionellen und wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung. Der erste Abschnitt liefert einen Überblick über den jetzigen Stand der Forschung und über die theoretischen Ansätze zu externen Einflüssen auf die institutionelle Entwicklung in Transformationsländern. Auf der Basis des Forschungsstands und unter Einbeziehung theoretischer Überlegungen werden im zweiten Abschnitt Analysekonzept und Methodik ausgearbeitet. Der dritte Abschnitt beschreibt die Integrationsschritte, die Mechanismen und die Wirkungszusammenhänge der NATO-Kooperation bzw. der NATO-Mitgliedschaft, d. h. das Potenzial der NATO, die institutionelle Konvergenz der Transformationsländer auf dem Weg zu mehr Demokratie und Marktwirtschaft zu beeinflussen. Im vierten Abschnitt werden diese Potenziale für den Fall der Ukraine analysiert. Die Autoren kommen zu folgenden vier Ergebnissen: (1) Die NATO stellt eine Alternative bei der Europäisierung in der Ukraine dar. (2) Trotz der ausgebauten Linkage-Mechanismen hängen positive Effekte der NATO auf Demokratie und Marktwirtschaft von der Aufnahme externe Anreize durch ein Land ab. (3) Budgetkontrolle und marktwirtschaftliche Regulierungen setzen sich (langsam) durch. (4) Ohne "bottom-up" Kräfte sind Enthusiasmus und NATO-getriebener Reformeifer nach wie vor eher moderat. (ICD2