Analyzing varieties of (post-enlargement) Europeanization in CEE advocacy organizations across policy fields
This article aims to explain Europeanization processes among advocacy organizations from four post-communist states—Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic—which have been subject to strong Europeanization pressures before and after the European Union accession. The authors aim to identify how Central and Eastern European organized interests have adapted their organizational logics to a changing environment in the post-enlargement phase. Specifically, we address the following questions: How do various levels and dimensions of Europeanization of interest organizations differ across policy fields and countries and what determines this diversity? What are the strongest predictors of …
Patient’s Cross-border Mobility Directive: Application, Performance and Perceptions Two Years after Transposition
Abstract This paper seeks to analyse the directive on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare. Two years after the transposition, it is time for first evaluations of its application, performance and perception. The analysis consists of three major elements: reconstruction of the legal scope and subject matter of the new legislation, conclusions of the evaluative reports monitoring its implementation and performance as well as the public opinion polls revealing the EU citizens’ perception of its details. These three components combined together deliver a picture of the state of play about the pan-European cross-border patients’ mobility. The bottomline conclusions nega…
Tri-Marium as the ‘emancipation’ of East-Central Europe: framing European counter-narratives in Poland
The historical notion of Inter-Marium captured Poland’s centuriesold concept of integrating, in a form of confederation, the new states that appeared on the map between the Baltic and Black Seas after 1918. Reincarnated as the contemporary narrative of Tri-Marium, this notion is gaining new momentum and has been most visible in Poland, the largest state of the European Union’s Eastern semi-periphery. This article examines Inter-Marium as one of the most clearly articulated counter-narratives to the mainstream European integration project. Drawing on original research rooted primarily in critical discourse analysis, the article uses framing as an interpretative tool. It analyses the narrativ…
Democratic Conditionality in the European Union
Russia and the EU. Spaces of Interaction
Political economy as an interdisciplinary approach to European integration studies
Celem niniejszego tekstu jest spojrzenie na studia z zakresu integracji europejskiej z perspektywy ekonomii politycznej. Zabieg taki pozwala na uchwycenie dwóch głównych wymiarów natury Unii Europejskiej, tj. ekonomicznego i politycznego, jak również stymulowania dialogu pomiędzy tymi dwoma sposobami teoretyzowania integracji europejskiej. Niniejszy tekst przybliża zasadniczo ekonomiczny dorobek w zakresie studiów europejskich (w sposób przystępny dla nie-ekonomistów), pozwalając na lepsze zrozumienie procesów, zjawisk i mechanizmów integracji międzynarodowej. The objective of the article is to see the studies on European integration from the perspective of the political economy, which allo…
The evolution of the Polish central bank’s views on Eurozone membership
AbstractThis article analyses the reports published by the National Bank of Poland (NBP – Narodowy Bank Polski) between 2004 and 2014. These reports shed light on the evolution of official thinking on the possibility of Polish participation in the Eurozone, revealing a decline in enthusiasm over time. This change has taken place against a backdrop of a shift in general public attitudes (in Poland) towards the European Union, and a more specific shift in public opinion on the desirability of monetary integration on the supranational level caused by the economic crisis. These two factors explain the shift in conclusions and arguments contained in the official reports of the National Bank of P…
Developments in Central and East European Politics – Edited by S. White, J. Batt and P. Lewis
Organized interests in post-communist policy-making: a new dataset for comparative research
AbstractThis article familiarizes readers with the international research project ‘The Missing Link: Exploring Organized Interests in Post-Communist Policy-Making’ (OrgIntCEE). The project team has focused on how populations of organized interests in the region have evolved, how they interact with state institutions as well as the group-specific characteristics driving access to policy-makers. The project also explores how Europeanization has affected post-communist interest groups as well as other factors contributing to their “coming-of-age.” We provide a comprehensive overview of the population ecology and survey datasets, while shedding light on the challenges during the data collection…
ADVOCACY ORGANISATIONS IN CEE HEALTHCARE – DOES EXPERTISE MATTER?
Ekonomiczny nacjonalizm i populizm – przenikające się relacje
The objective of the paper is to analyse two very closely related categories, economic nationalism and economic populism. They intertwine both in the lived politics on the ground and in intellectual debates. Despite a rich interdisciplinary discourse, scholars interested in economic nationalism and economic populism still disagree not only how to explain them, but more fundamentally – about what they are and what their relation is. This paper answers this deficit by addressing the question of the intertwining connections between economic nationalism and populism. In the first instance it reconstructs the basic definitions of economic nationalism – its constitutive elements, its historicity …
Thinking through Transition. Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe after 1989
Great Britain and Differentiated Integration in Europe
The United Kingdom has always been a special case in the European integration project. The British exceptionalism manifested in various forms and ways over the history. June 23rd 2016 delivered another culmination point in the story of the stubborn European’s relations with its continental partners. The so-called Brexit referendum, which brought about victory for the supporters of the UK leaving the European Union, marks an important milestone in these relations. It has never been an easy marriage and many times threatened by the divorce. Instead of becoming ever closer, the European Union becomes ever loser and the UK is ever closer to leaving. Brexit is not only vital for the British, it …
EUROscepticism and Monetary Security in Europe
By deliberating on the correlations between the monetary security and the EUROsceptic views of the European citizenry and elites, this chapter addresses the problem of supranational monetary policy and the consequences it has for the economic security of the EU and its constitutive member states. The analysis starts with the introduction into the concept of EUROscepticism and its relations with the classical Euroscepticism. Then the second key term of the chapter is defined, which is the monetary security—nested in the general understanding of the economic security. Here, not only the author provides his own understanding of the monetary security, but also discusses its main levels, dimensi…
Exploring Organized Interests in Post-Communist Policy-Making: The "Missing Link"
This book examines organized interests in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), providing incisive analyses in three critically important policy areas - healthcare, higher education and energy. The four countries surveyed – Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic – afford rich diversity offering broad empirical material available for cross-country and cross-policy comparative analyses. Featuring interdisciplinary research, the book draws together recent developments in the evolution of post-communist advocacy organizations, their population ecology dynamics, interest intermediation, the influence of organized interests and their (bottom-up and top-down) Europeanization. …
The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 224.
Interest Representation Preconditions in Illiberal Poland and Hungary
Poland and Hungary have been widely recognised as countries affected by illiberalism. This has undoubtedly created a challenging environment for interest groups; groups which are a touchstone for the quality of democratic processes. In this article, we aim to understand how preconditions for interest representation have changed due to illiberal drift through the eyes of interest groups operating in these two selected post-communist countries. In order to examine their perception of opportunity structures, interaction infrastructure as well as the level of political coordination under the new circumstances, we rely on quantitative research in the form of a survey carried out among interest g…