It’s the Bureaucracy, Stupid
The Implementation of the Acquis Communautaire in EU Candidate Countries, 1999-2003
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6261802 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Hille (University of Konstanz), Christoph Knill (0000-0002-8562-2102, University of Konstanz) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 531-552 |
| Publication date | 2006-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Union Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1465-1165 • E-ISSN: 1741-2757 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1465116506069442 |
| OpenAlex | W1980102556 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 73 |
| References cited | 31 |
The Central and East European (CEE) countries that had applied for membership in the European Union were confronted with far-reaching requirements in order to bring domestic policies in line with EU standards. Notwithstanding these rather uniform pressures emerging from conditionality, there is considerable variety in alignment performance across the candidate countries and over time. To account for this, we use time series cross-sectional data on the implementation performance of 13 EU candidate countries between 1999 and 2003. Our results indicate that the bureaucratic strength and effectiveness of a country positively influence its ability to adjust domestic arrangements to EU requirements. By contrast, we find no support for veto-player theories of political constraints on legislative change. We hence conclude that the implementation of the acquis communautaire in candidate countries prior to accession has been a question of bureaucratic problems rather than of political veto-manoeuvres
Accession · Bureaucracy · Conditionality · Economic system · Economics · European union · International trade · Legislature · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Variety (cybernetics · Veto · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
Europeanization of Policies and Administration
Implementing and complying with EU governance outputs
Policy Accumulation and the Democratic Responsiveness Trap
Europeanization post-accession
Transnational cooperation of Turkish political parties as an ineffective tool of Europeanization
Visegrad Group and its Presence in the Mashriq Region
A street-level perspective on non-compliance in the EU
The European Court of Human Rights under scrutiny
Access, capacity and influence
Strategic Learning, Limited Europeanization
Green matters? The effects of green party support, autonomy and capacity on subnational environmental infringements
Europeanization in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Implementation Is the Hardest Word
Regional diversity in experiences of cohesion policy
Collateral benefit
Effectiveness of EU Transgovernmental Cooperation in the Neighbourhood
The EU's New Approach To the Two-State Solution in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Divergent resources and convergent transposition strategies – the East–West cleavage and its implications for transposition
Compliance with EU Legislation in the Pre-accession Countries of South East Europe (2005–2011)
The Challenge of Implementing Minority Rights in Central Eastern Europe
Promoting Competition
Implementation of EU Social Policy Directives in Belgium
Differential Europeanization in Eastern Europe
The Short-Term Effects of European Integration on Mortality Convergence
The Europeanization of financial regulation and supervision on the Baltic–Nordic axis
A Difficult Encounter – National Health Care Models and the EU
Policy capacity
Administrative capacity or quality of political governance? EU Cohesion Policy in the new Europe, 2007–13
The Robustness of National Agency Governance in Integrated Administrative Systems
Rule growth and government effectiveness
The Ripple Effects of Compliance
Incumprimento Protecionista no Mercado Único da União Europeia
Transposition and National-Level Resources
Subnational trouble? Party system nationalisation, issue salience, and capacity constraints in Spain ́s infringements of European environmental directives
Implementing Europe
The electoral foundations to noncompliance
Performing to Type? How State Institutions Matter in East Central Europe
Frontline uses of European Union (EU) law
Aiding the state
Improving the efficiency of pretrial bargaining in disputes over noncompliance with international law
Good Europeans? How European identity and costs interact to explain politician attitudes towards compliance with European Union law
Larger and more law abiding? The impact of enlargement on compliance in the European Union
The New Member States of the Eu in the Aftermath of Enlargement
Caving in or sitting it out? Longitudinal patterns of non-compliance in the European Union
Legislative Transposition of Directives
Embracing European Law
Silent professionalization
When does the European Commission Pursue Noncompliance
Assessing the performance of the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe and in its neighbourhood
Obstinate and Inefficient
The Strategic Nature of Compliance
International Organization as a Seal of Approval
The Politics of International Oversight
Beyond Balkan exceptionalism. Assessing compliance with EU law in Bulgaria and Romania
Diffusion of Compliance in the ‘Race towards Brussels?’ A Spatial Approach to EU Accession Conditionality
More Policies, More Work? An Epidemiological Assessment of Accumulating Implementation Stress in the Context of German Pension Policy
Do Governments Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is? Policy Adoption And Administrative Resource Provision in 15 OECD Countries
How Robust Are Compliance Findings? A Research Synthesis
A guardian in need of support
Implementing market mechanisms in the Paris era
Forecasting candidate states’ compliance with EU accession rules, 2017–2050
When does the EU commission listen to experts? Analysing the effect of external compliance assessments on supranational enforcement in the EU
Revisiting Policy Preferences and Capacities in the EU
Explaining the allocation of regional Structural Funds
The temporal dimension of the credibility of EU conditionality and candidate states’ compliance with the acquis communautaire, 1998–2009
Non-conformable, partial and conformable transposition
Lost in Translation or Full Steam Ahead
Do Membership Benefits Buy Regulatory Compliance
The Ups and Downs of Bureaucratic Organization
The efficiency of ministries in transposing EU directives
Opening the black box of the organization
Compliance with EU environmental law. The iceberg is melting
Political opportunities, not migration flows
Democracies
The Europeanisation of National Administrations
Party Policy in Modern Democracies
Basic Content Analysis
The institutional environment for infrastructure investment
Veto Players
Patterns of democracy
Governance Matters IV
Explaining Legal Implementation in the European Union
National Adaptation to European Integration
National adaptation to European integration
Non-compliance in the European Union
Governance by conditionality
How does Europeanization affect CEE governance? Conditionality, diffusion and diversity
Legislative Procedures in the European Community
Winners Take All
Non-Compliance with EU Directives in the Member States
Why Denmark and Belgium Have Different Implementation Records
EU compliance
Bargaining, Enforcement, and International Cooperation
On compliance
The Internal Value of External Options
Surviving the Deadline
Why National States Comply with Supranational Law
The impact of constitutional structures and collective and competitive veto points on income inequality in industrialized democracies
Democracies
Decision Making in Political Systems
Bureaucracy and Growth
| Unique citing works | 73 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,84 |
| Citation span | 2007 - 2025 (19) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 73 |