Hidden phases of de-Europeanization: insights from historical institutionalism

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.