Capitalism Unleashed? The EU as a Promoter of Economic Change in the Region

The influence of the EU on domestic Polish policies varied greatly before and after accession. Before accession, the EU’s influence was most powerful, establishing an enlargement regime aiming to “socialise” the Central Eastern countries into the institutional order of the European Union, based on power asymmetry. After accession, the influence of the EU happened under normal membership conditions, often referred to as a process of Europeanisation. Europeanisation has of late become a very popular term, used and misused to describe a number of phenomena linked to the European project. While some studies describe bottom-up processes, others top-down, and a third both, as Europeanisation, I prefer to understand Europeanisation as the diffusion of EU policies within nation states. Most of the Europeanisation literature tends to analyse domestic change in terms of the likelihood of convergence. Radaelli (2000) teaches us to distinguish Europeanisation from convergence, harmonisation, and political integration: convergence can be a consequence of Europeanisation; harmonisation is a reduction of regulatory diversity while Europeanisation can increase regulatory diversity; finally, Europeanisation is not political integration but follows from integration (Radaelli, 2000, p. 7f). Empirical evidence shows indeed that Europeanisation does not lead to convergence but created much divergence. National adjustments remain national-path dependent.