Completed Projects

Effects on the Rule of Law in Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia

Director
Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig

Researchers
Dr. Asya Zhelyazkova
Ivan Damjanovski
Zoran Nechev
Sena Maric

Duration
2014 - 2017

Funding
This research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation as part of the program "Scientific co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland" (SCOPES).

Summary
In this research project, we assess the effects of the European Union’s enlargement strategy towards the Western Balkans. In contrast to previous waves of enlargement, in order to obtain membership in the EU, the Western Balkan countries are required to have the most difficult acquis effectively and sustainably implemented before accession. Their accession process is even further complicated by the widespread “enlargement fatigue” among the member state societies and due to legacies of civil war, ethnic conflict, and recent statehood.

The project thus starts from the research question how the EU’s enlargement strategy has worked under these comparatively unfavorable circumstances. Can we explain its effects on the basis of existing theoretical approaches and factors that have proven relevant for Eastern enlargement? Or do we have to adapt our models and explanations to the circumstances of enlargement to the Western Balkans? Finally, which strategies and instruments have worked effectively?
The project will undertake three country case studies focusing on the EU´s political criteria and the rule of law issues covered in chapters 23 and 24 of accession negotiations: the judiciary, fundamental rights, and "Justice, Freedom and Security".

Directors
Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig
Prof. Katharina Holzinger (University of Konstanz)

Researchers
Dr. Sabine Jenni (ETH Zurich)
Thomas Duttle (University of Konstanz)
Thomas Schäubli (ETH Zurich)
Dr. Thomas Winzen (ETH Zurich)

Duration
2010 - 2016

Funding
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) & German Research Association (DFG)

Summary
Differentiated integration refers to the territorially fragmented validity of European Union rules. Integration is differentiated if individual EU rules do not apply in some member states, if they apply in some non-member states, or both. It is widely assumed that the considerable territorial and functional expansion of the EU in recent times has increased the demand for differentiated integration.
Despite the perceived political and scientific relevance of the topic, the state of research is characterized by scarce data and little theory-oriented explanatory analysis. We are therefore building the first comprehensive dataset of differentiated integration in Europe. This dataset will allow for a systematic descriptive and explanatory analysis of trends as well as country- and policy-specific patterns of differentiation. How has differentiation developed over time? Why has it been more or less pronounced for individual policies or countries?
In addition to the study of “opt-outs” among the EU’s member states, we collect and analyze data on the “opt-ins” of non-member states with a focus on Switzerland and the countries of the European Economic Area.

Publications

Schimmelfennig, Frank and Thomas Winzen. 2017. Eastern Enlargement and Differentiated Integration: Towards Normalization. Journal of European Public Policy 24(2): 239-258.

Duttle, Thomas, Katharina Holzinger, Thomas Malang, Thomas Schäubli, Frank Schimmelfennig and Thomas Winzen. 2017. Opting Out from European Union Legislation: the Differentiation of Secondary Law. Journal of European Public Policy 24(3): 406-428.

Winzen, Thomas. 2016. From Capacity to Sovereignty: Legislative Politics and Differentiated Integration in the European Union. European Journal of Political Research 55(1): 100-119.

Winzen, Thomas and Frank Schimmelfennig. 2016. Explaining Differentiation in European Union Treaties. European Union Politics 17(4): 616-637.

Schimmelfennig, Frank. 2016. Good Governance and Differentiated Integration: Graded Membership in the European Union. European Journal of Political Research 55(4): 789-810.

Schimmelfennig, Frank. 2016. A Differentiated Leap Forward: Spillover, Path-dependency, and Graded Membership in European Banking Regulation. West European Politics 39(3): 483-502.

Holzinger, Katharina and Frank Schimmelfennig. 2015. Eurokrise und differenzierte Integration. Politische Vierteljahresschrift 56(3): 457-478.

Schimmelfennig, Frank, Dirk Leuffen and Berthold Rittberger. 2015. The European Union as a System of Differentiated Integration: Interdependence, Politicization, and Differentiation. Journal of European Public Policy 22(6): 764-782.

Schimmelfennig, Frank. 2014. EU Enlargement and Differentiated Integration: Discrimination or Equal Treatment? Journal of European Public Policy 21(5): 681-698.

Schimmelfennig, Frank and Thomas Winzen. 2014. Instrumental and Constitutional Differentiation in the European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies 52(2):  354-370.

Winzen, Thomas and Frank Schimmelfennig. 2014. Vertragsentwicklung und Differenzierung in der europäischen Integration. Nationale Identität, staatliche Autonomie und die Entstehung einer Kern-Peripherie-Struktur in der EU. Integration 37(2): 138-151.

Schimmelfennig, Frank. 2014. Differentiated Integration Before and After the Crisis, in Olaf Cramme and Sara B. Hobolt (eds.): Democratic Politics in a European Union under Stress. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 120-134.

Rittberger, Berthold, Dirk Leuffen and Frank Schimmelfennig. 2014. Differentiated Integration of Core State Powers, in Philipp Genschel and Markus Jachtenfuchs (eds.): Beyond the Regulatory Polity? The European Integration of Core State Powers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 189-210.

Holzinger, Katharina and Frank Schimmelfennig. 2012. Differentiated Integration in the European Union. Many Concepts, Sparse Theory, Few Data. Journal of European Public Policy 19(2), 292-305.

Leuffen, Dirk, Berthold Rittberger, and Frank Schimmelfennig. 2013. Differentiated Integration. Explaining Variation in the European Union. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Directors:

external pageProf. Francis Chenevalcall_made external pageProf. Sandra Lavenexcall_made Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig

Researchers:

Rebecca Welge Thomas Winzen  

Duration: 2009-2013

Funding: NCCR “Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century”

Summary:
The project starts from the assumption that the EU is a multi-national polity with multiple demoi. It seeks to establish appropriate democratic institutions for such a polity and analyzes the effects that existing parliamentary, judicial, and functional institutions in the EU have on democracy.

DownloadResearch Proposal (PDF, 24 KB)vertical_align_bottom

Publications:

• Schimmelfennig, Frank (2010): The Normative Origins of Democracy in the European Union: Towards a Transformationalist Theory of Democratization, European Political Science Review 2(2), 211-233.
• Winzen, Thomas. 2010. "Political Integration and National Parliaments in Europe." Living Reviews in Democracy. Online article: http://www.livingreviews.org/lrd-2010-5
• Roederer-Rynning, Christilla, and Frank Schimmelfennig (2012) "Bringing Codecision to Agriculture: a Hard Case of Parliamentarization." Journal of European Public Policy 19(7).
• Winzen, Thomas. 2012. "National parliamentary control of European Union affairs: a cross-national and longitudinal comparison." West European Politics 35(3): 657-672.
• Winzen, Thomas. 2013. "European integration and national parliamentary oversight institutions." European Union Politics 14(2): 297-323.
• Cheneval, Francis, and Frank Schimmelfennig (2013). "The Case for Demoicracy in the European Union." Journal of Common Market Studies 51(2), 334-350.
• Cheneval, Francis, Sandra Lavenex and Frank Schimmelfennig. 2015. Demoi-cracy in the European Union: Principles, Institutions, Policies. Journal of European Public Policy 22(1): 1-18.
• Winzen, Thomas, Christilla Roederer-Rynning and Frank Schimmelfennig. 2015. Parliamentary Co-Evolution: National Parliamentary Reactions to the Empowerment of the European Parliament. Journal of European Public Policy 22(1): 75-93.
• Welge, Rebecca (2015). "Union Citizenship as demoi-cratic Institution: Increasing the EU’s subjective legitimacy through Supranational Citizenship?", Special Issue, Journal of European Public Policy 22(1): 56-74. DownloadOnline appendix (PDF, 317 KB)vertical_align_bottom

Directors:

external pageProf. Dirk Leuffencall_made, Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig

Researchers:

Robin Hertz, Thomas Jensen

Duration: 2006-2011

Funding:

This research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Chair of European Politics at ETH Zurich.

Summary:

In this project we analyze the impact of group size on political decision-making. Studying the case of the European Union (EU) we investigate whether and how enlargement affects policy-making, both in terms of processes but also outcomes. Given that the EU’s institutional framework initially was designed for a community of six rather homogenous member states many questions are asked today about the governance capacities of the EU27. Is the EU still governable in its current form? Or have the enlargement rounds lead to an increasing occurrence of gridlock? Can we find evidence for a changed “nature of the beast” after enlargement as argued by some commentators?

In particular, Eastern enlargement has greatly increased the number of EU member states but also its economic, political and cultural heterogeneity. Most theories accordingly predict an increase in policy-stability. Interestingly, first findings on legislative output, however, do not corroborate these predictions. There is no general gridlock after enlargement and rather a ‘business as usual’ hypothesis seems to prevail. This raises the question of whether our theories were wrong and if yes, in what respect, or whether so far we have wrongly measured the impact of enlargement. On the theoretical front, we start off with a rationalist reading of post-enlargement governance. We then complement rationalist hypotheses by adding sociological group theories. Those draw our attention to the behavior of the old and of the new member states as well as possible compensatory mechanisms that have been set into being. In particular, we apply theories of oligarchization, adaptation and formalization.

In our research we use a set of different methods. Econometric analyses, network analyses and case studies are complemented by agent-based models. Although agent-based modelling has produced promising results in other fields of political science it so far has only rarely been applied to the study of the EU. Agent-based models, however, seem well suited to get a better grip on the dynamic mechanisms of policy-making in the enlarged EU. The innovative theoretical set-up and the use of different methods applied to a range of data-sets aims at providing a rigorous account of the effects of enlargement as one of the most important steps in recent European integration.

DownloadResearch Proposal (PDF, 147 KB)vertical_align_bottom

Publications:

• Bechtel, Michael and Dirk Leuffen (2010): ‘Forecasting European Union Politics: Real-time forecasts in political time series analysis’, European Union Politics 11(2), 309-327.
• Leuffen, Dirk and Robin Hertz (2010): ‘If Things can Only get Worse. Anticipation of Enlargement in European Union Legislative Politics’. European Journal of Political Research 49, 53-74.
• Bailer, Stefanie, Robin Hertz and Dirk Leuffen (2009) ‘Oligarchization, Formalization, Adaptation? Linking Sociological Theory and EU Enlargement Research’, Journal of European Public Policy 16(1), 162-174.
  

Further papers:

• Hertz, Robin and Leuffen, Dirk (2008) Business as Usual? Analyzing the Effects of Enlargement on EU Legislative Output, Zurich: CIS Working Paper 38.
• Leuffen, Dirk (2008) Ever more complex? Domestic Politics in the Enlarged European Union, paper presented at the UACES conference, Edinburgh, 1-3 September 2008.
• Bailer, Stefanie, Hertz, Robin and Leuffen, Dirk (2008) Oligarchization, Formalization, Adaptation? Linking Sociological Theory and Enlargement Research, Zurich: CIS Working Paper 33.
• Hertz, Robin and Leuffen, Dirk (2007) Anticipation in Legislative Politics. The Case of EU Enlargement, Zurich: CIS Working Paper 32.

Full title: The Adoption, Implementation and Sustainability of Minority Protection Rules in the Context of EU Conditionality

Directors:

Dr. Guido Schwellnus Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig

Researchers:

Dr. Lilla Balázs Dr. Liudmila Mikalayeva

Duration: 2006-2011

Funding:

This research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Chair of European Politics at ETH Zurich.

Summary:

Since its inclusion in the ‘Copenhagen criteria’, the EU has demanded and monitored compliance with international minority protection rules as a precondition for accession, while at the same time these rules are mostly (with the exception of non-discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity) not part of the acquis communautaire. Two questions follow from this observation: first, to what extent was conditionality a necessary and sufficient factor for the adoption of minority protection rules in the Central and Eastern European countries; second, how sustainable are minority protection measures after accession, when EU conditionality has ceased and compliance is not enforced by the internal EU sanctioning mechanism. The research project investigates the sustainability of minority protection rules in all ten new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe by analyzing the conditions for the adoption, implementation and maintenance of minority protection in the pre- and post-accession phase.

DownloadResearch Proposal (PDF, 248 KB)vertical_align_bottom

Publications:

Schwellnus, Guido, Lilla Balázs and Liudmila Mikalayeva (2009): 'It ain’t over when it’s over: The adoption and sustainability of minority protection rules in new EU member states'. In: Frank Schimmelfennig and Florian Trauner (eds): 'Post-accession compliance in the EU's new member states'. external pageEuropean Integration online Paperscall_made Special Issue 2, Vol. 13, Art. 24

Directors:

external pageProf. Sandra Lavenexcall_made Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig  

Researchers:

Tina Freyburg Tatiana Skripka Anne Wetzel  

Duration: 2005-2010

Funding:

Swiss National Science Foundation, external pageNCCR “Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century”call_made

Summary:

The project examines the conditions, mechanisms, and effects of EU democracy promotion in Eastern Europe and Northern Africa. It starts from the assumption that the EU political accession conditionality, which has worked well in the candidate countries for EU membership, will be of limited use in the EU’s Neighborhood. Because most Neighborhood countries do not have a membership perspective and are ruled by authoritarian or autocratic regimes, the political costs for the target governments of complying with EU democratic and human rights rules are too high, whereas the external incentives are too weak to generate compliance.

The project therefore explores the structural prerequisites of democracy promotion in the EU’s Neighborhood and the effects of democracy promotion strategies other than political conditionality. We investigate how the EU nevertheless can induce democratic change in its neighboring countries through functional cooperation at the level of sectors and under what conditions this approach is effective.

Additional information:

Download'How the EU promotes democracy in neighbouring countries'. (PDF, 328 KB)vertical_align_bottom NCCR newsletter No. 5, September 2008

Publications:

• Schimmelfennig, Frank and Hanno Scholtz (2010): 'Legacies and Leverage: EU Political Conditionality and Democracy Promotion in Historical Perspective', Europe-Asia Studies 62(3): 443-60.
• Freyburg, Tina and Solveig Richter (2010): 'National Identity Matters: The Limited Impact of EU Political Conditionality in the Western Balkans', Journal of European Public Policy 17(2): 262-80.
• Schimmelfennig, Frank (2009): 'Europeanization Beyond Europe', Living Reviews in European Governance 4(3), online article external page(http://www.livingreviews.org/lreg-2009-3)call_made.
• Schimmelfennig, Frank and Sandra Lavenex (2009): 'EU Rules Beyond EU Borders: Theorizing External Governance in European Politics', Journal of European Public Policy 16(6): 791-812.
• Freyburg, Tina, Sandra Lavenex, Frank Schimmelfennig, Tatiana Skripka, and Anne Wetzel (2009): 'EU Promotion of Democratic Governance in the Neighbourhood', Journal of European Public Policy 16(6): 916-34.
• Schimmelfennig, Frank and Sandra Lavenex (eds) (2009): 'EU External Governance', Journal of European Public Policy 16(6) (special issue).
• Schimmelfennig, Frank (2008): 'EU Political Conditionality After the 2004 Enlargement: Consistency and Effectiveness', Journal of European Public Policy 15(6): 918-37.
• Schimmelfennig, Frank and Hanno Scholtz (2008): ‘EU Democracy Promotion in the European Neighborhood: Political Conditionality, Economic Development and Transnational Exchange’, European Union Politics 9:2, 187-215.
• Freyburg, Tina, Sandra Lavenex, Frank Schimmelfennig, Hanno Scholtz, Tatiana Skripka, and Anne Wetzel (2008): 'Neue Wege der externen Demokratieförderung: Demokratisches Regieren in der Europäischen Nachbarschaftspolitik', in: Gero Erdmann, Marianne Kneuer (eds): Externe Faktoren der Demokratisierung, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 169-93.
• Lavenex, Sandra (2008): ‘A Governance Approach to the European Neighborhood Policy: Integration Beyond Conditionality?’, Journal of European Public Policy 15:6, 938-955.
• Schimmelfennig, Frank (2008): ‘EU Political Conditionality After the 2004 Enlargement: Consistency and Effectiveness’, Journal of European Public Policy 15:6, 918-937.
• Lavenex, Sandra and Frank Schimmelfennig (2008): 'Relations with the Wider Europe', Journal of Common Market Studies 46: 145-64, Annual Review 2007.

Papers to download:

• Freyburg, Tina (2009) Democrats without Democracy? Linkage and Socialization into Democratic Governance in Authoritarian Regimes, NCCR Working Paper No. 37.
• Freyburg, Tina, Tatiana Skripka and Anne Wetzel (2007): 'Democracy between the Lines? EU Promotion of Democratic Governance via Sector-specific Co-operation', National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century Working Paper No. 5.external pagecall_made

Directors:

Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig external pageProf. Berthold Rittbergercall_made

Researchers:

external pageAlexander Bürgincall_made Guido Schwellnus

Duration: 2003-2006

Funding: Thyssen Foundation

Summary:

The project examines two central processes of constitutional politics in the European Union, which are neglected in research on European integration and constitute puzzles in the perspective of current rationalist theories of international institutions and integration: the gradual expansion of the competencies of the European Parliament and the increasing institutionalization of human rights at the European level. To explain these processes and their results, the project analyzes EU constitutional politics as strategic action in the context of an international community. In an international community, strategic actors act under the constraint to legitimize their behaviour on the basis of the values and norms that form the community ethos. As parliamentary democracy and liberal human rights are constitutive elements of the EU’s community ethos, actors interested in strengthening EP rights and the codification of human rights in the EU were able to exert effective social influence on those actors, which opposed such steps.

Material:

• DownloadResearch Proposal (PDF, 116 KB)vertical_align_bottom
• DownloadPoster Presentation (PPT, 286 KB)vertical_align_bottom

Publications:

Edited Volumes

Berthold Rittberger and Frank Schimmelfennig (eds) (2007): The Constitutionalization of the European Union. London: Routledge.

Berthold Rittberger and Frank Schimmelfennig (eds) (2006): Die Europäische Union auf dem Weg in den Verfassungsstaat. Mannheimer Jahrbuch für Europäische Sozialforschung - Band 10. Frankfurt a.M.: Campus.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

Frank Schimmelfennig and Berthold Rittberger (2007): 'The Constitutionalization of the European Union: Explaining the Parliamentarization and Institutionalization of Human Rights', in: Meunier, Sophie and McNamara, Kathleen R. (eds.): Making History. European Integration and Institutional Change at Fifty (The State of the European Union 8), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 213-229.

Journal Articles

Berthold Rittberger und Frank Schimmelfennig (2006): 'Preface'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1147-1147.

Berthold Rittberger and Frank Schimmelfennig (2006): 'Explaining the constitutionalization of the European Union'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1148-1167.

Frank Schimmelfennig, Berthold Rittberger, Alexander Bürgin und Guido Schwellnus (2006): 'Conditions for EU constitutionalization: a qualitative comparative analysis'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1168-1189.

Daniel C. Thomas (2006): 'Constitutionalization through enlargement: the contested origins of the EU's democratic identity'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1190-1210.

Berthold Rittberger (2006): '"No integration without representation!" European integration, parliamentary democracy, and two forgotten Communities'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1211-1229.

Wolfgang Wagner (2006): 'Guarding the guards. The European Convention and the communitization of police co-operation'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1230-1246.

Frank Schimmelfennig (2006): 'Competition and community: constitutional courts, rhetorical action, and the institutionalization of human rights in the European Union'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1247-1264.

Guido Schwellnus (2006): 'Reasons for constitutionalization: non-discrimination, minority rights and social rights in the Convention on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1265-1283.

Sandra Lavenex (2006): 'Towards the constitutionalization of aliens' rights in the European Union?'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1284-1301.

R. Daniel Kelemen (2006): 'Comment: Shaming the shameless? The constitutionalization of the European Union'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1302-1307.

Antje Wiener (2006): 'Comment: Fact or artefact? Analysing core constitutional norms in beyond-the-state contexts'. Journal of European Public Policy 13(8): 1308-1313.

Directors:

external pageProf. Thomas Plümpercall_made Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig

Research Assistant:

Sandra Egli

Duration: 2005-2006

Summary:

The study on professorial recruitment in German Political Science is conducted by Professor Thomas Plümper (University of Essex) und Professor Frank Schimmelfennig (ETH Zurich) on behalf of the Section International Politics of the German Political Science Association (DVPW). The study, which covers all political scientists that were habilitated between 1990 and 2004 in Germany (as well as those that were appointed for the first time without habilitation), aims to determine the factors upon which the duration between the habilitation and the first appointment to a professorship in Political Science depends. The results of the study are supposed to help the career planning of young scholars and trigger reflection within the academic field on the recruitment of university teachers.

Publications and Papers:

Journal Articles

'Ohne Substanz. Eine Antwort auf Gross/Jungbauer-Gans', in Politische Vierteljahresschrift 48:3, 2007, 559-563 (with Thomas Plümper).

'Geschlecht und Karriere: Gender-Aspekte der Berufungen in der deutschen Politikwissenschaft', in Femina Politica. Zeitschrift für Feministische Politikwissenschaft 15:1, 2007, 118-123 (with Thomas Plümper).

Wer wird Prof – und wann? Berufungsdeterminanten in der deutschen Politikwissenschaft, in Politische Vierteljahresschrift 48:1, 97-117 (with Thomas Plümper).

Newspaper Articles

Nikolas Busse (2006): 'Der Mutterbonus - Eine überraschende Studie über Berufungen in der deutschen Politikwissenschaft'. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26. September 2006. 

Conference Papers

Thomas Plümper und Frank Schimmelfennig (2006): Berufungsdeterminanten in der Politikwissenschaft. Paper presented at the 2006 Convention of the German Political Science Association in Münster, 29 September 2006.