Tutors and Pupils

International Organizations, Central European Elites, and Western Models

Bibliographic Data

ID7786007
AuthorsWade Jacoby (Brigham Young University, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume14
Issue2
Pages169-200
Publication date2001-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGovernance (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-1895 • E-ISSN: 1468-0491
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/0952-1895.00157
OpenAlexW1998685714
LanguageEN
Citations received41

In the past decade, political elites in Central and Eastern Europe have often sought to imitate Western organizational and institutional models, while organizations like the EU and NATO have often acted as “institutional tutors” in the region. Using evidence from Hungary and the Czech Republic, this paper demonstrates why imitating Western structures has been both administratively expedient and useful in building political coalitions. It also stresses that the short‐term benefits of doing so are followed by longer‐term costs. The paper answers four questions: How have certain models been held up to CEE elites? Why might some such models be targets for elites to imitate? How does such imitation occur? And what results from imitation? Contrary to expectations that institutional modeling would be merely technocratic and used only yearly in the transformation, the paper's threefold heuristic of templates, thresholds, and adjustments shows that the process is both politically contentious and sustained

Czech · Economic system · Economics · Epistemology · Heuristic · Imitation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Technocracy · European Politics and Security · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Psychology · Social Psychology