Studia Politica Nr. 42014
www.ssoar.info Balkan politicians, mostly immune to the influence of EU integration Mitropolitski, Simeon Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Mitropolitski, S. (2014). Balkan politicians, mostly immune to the influence of EU integration. Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, 14(4), 497-514. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-445874 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de Balkan Politicians, Mostly Immune to the Influence of EU Integration SIMEON MITROPOLITSKI Are the post-communist politicians changing their political identities as a result of European Union (EU) integration? Are they more likely to accept democratic norms and procedures as their countries are moving toward EU membership? The literature gives two mutually excluding answers with possible shades of gray between them. On the one hand, Vachudova and Spendzharova 1, Levitsky and Way 2, Pridham 3, Hullen and Borzel 4, share the optimistic vision of EU integration as beneficiary to democratic development in post-communist context, including also its role in promoting democratic political culture, in shifting political calculations toward accepting western norms, and in teaching local political elites the rules of democratic bargaining. As an alternative, authors such as Gallagher 5, Raik 6 and Bideleux 7 tell a different story.
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