https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5421-8388
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ABSTRACT
While the EU’s impact on member and non-member states has been well researched, we have much less understanding of how Europeanization processes give way to de-Europeanization, a widespread phenomenon of the past decade. This paper unpacks and explores the hidden phases and modes of de-Europeanization. I argue that the models of gradual institutional change in historical institutionalism, namely ‘layering’, ‘conversion’ and ‘drift’, operate in different phases of de-Europeanization in a sequential mode. I explore this argument empirically in the domain of regional development policy in Turkey, the longest-standing candidate country. The empirical analysis shows that the mode of ‘layering’, which involves the addition of new rules without upsetting the existing arrangements, during Europeanization unleashed a subsequent mode of ‘conversion’, in which new rules were upheld but exploited in implementation. This phase was then followed by ‘drift’, in which new rules have become irrelevant in the midst of changing circumstances.
Acknowledgments
The conceptual idea behind this work draws on extensive conversations the author held with T. Bolukbasi over several years. I thank T. Bolukbasi for his valuable insights and support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In showing the applicability of the models of gradual change to depict different phases of de-Europeanization I do not refer to the typology of change agents that Mahoney and Thelen (Citation2010) have developed. In their theoretical framework the change agents (‘insurrectionaries’, ‘subversives’, ‘symbionts’ and ‘opportunists’) explain the micro-logic of action in each model of gradual institutional change. However, the reality is not so neat. While I explore the motivations of actors at each stage, these motivations do not easily lend themselves to be categorized as such. Yet, I argue that the authors’ models of gradual change obtain in the case study.