Theofanis Exadaktylos

Research Design in European Studies: The Case of Europeanization

In this article, we contribute to the debate on research design and causal analysis in European integration studies by considering the sub-field of Europeanization. First, we examine the awareness of research design issues in the literature on Europeanization through a review of the debate on causality, concept formation and methods. Second, we analyse how much of the discussion of the trade-offs in causal analysis in mainstream political science has percolated into Europeanization studies. We therefore construct a sample of the Europeanization literature, comparing it to a control group of highly cited articles on European integration. This enables us to control if some patterns are specific to the Europeanization literature or reflect a more general trend in European integration. We then look at trade-offs in the Europeanization sample and in the control group. Our findings indicate that awareness of research design is still low. Europeanization articles differ from the control group in the focus on mechanisms (rather than variables) and the qualitative aspects of time in politics. Complex notions of causality prevail in Europeanization but not in the control group and the cause-of-effects approach is preferred to effects-of-causes in the control group but not in Europeanization – in both cases, however, the difference is slight. We conclude by explaining differences and similarities and make proposals for future research.

Greece in Crisis: Austerity, Populism and the Politics of Blame†

Within the broader debate on the Greek crisis, the theory of ‘populist democracy’ postulates that populism is fundamental to the sustenance of the Greek political system and is at the heart of Greeces endemic domestic weaknesses. This article tests this assumption empirically through the use of a sophisticated framing analysis of speeches delivered by the leaders of the five parties in the Greek parliament in the period 2009–11. The findings confirm that populism: (a) is expressed through the narratives of political actors; (b) is observed across the party system; (c) is expressed in the forms of blame-shifting and exclusivity; and (d) differs depending on position in the party system. The article contributes to the debate by testing and building on the theory of democratic populism, providing a novel way of measuring and operationalizing populism and identifying a new typology that distinguishes between mainstream and fringe populism.

Research Design in European Studies

Informed by epistemological pluralism and state-of-the-art debate on research design in the social sciences, this volume combines conceptual elaboration with substantive research puzzles. Research Design in European Studies investigates different notions of causality and relates them to methods and techniques. Designed for use either in a course on European Union politics or in preparing projects on Europeanization, the book offers an applied perspective on research methods in specific areas of qualitative approaches to causality, as well as chapters introducing quantitative, critical realist, and discursive strategies. Substantively, the contributors tackle research issues in the domains of compliance, EU external relations, foreign policy, health care, party politics and urban governance.

New Directions in Europeanization Research

Fifty years since the inception of European integration, political scientists are increasingly attracted by the theoretical and empirical puzzles of how to establish if and how the EU has changed representation, governance and public policy in the member states and beyond. Broadly speaking, this is the domain of Europeanization research. In this chapter, we first make the argument that the concern with Europeanization is somewhat in the genes of the academic study of European integration. In a sense, this field of research has always existed. But in another sense, Europeanization as a distinct research field is increasingly prominent, as shown by several literature reviews and internet sites2 dedicated to this topic (Olsen, 2002; Borzel and Risse, 2003; Graziano and Vink, 2007; Lenschow, 2005; Axt et ai, 2007; Schimmelfennig, 2007).

Feeling the pulse of the Greek Debt Crisis: affect on the web of blame.

ABSTRACT This article examines the affective content of Greek media representations of the debt crisis, from 2009 to 2012. We analyze the content of opinion pieces from journalists, experts and public intellectuals published in Greek newspapers, and identify their affective tone towards political actors and institutions. We focus on anger, fear and hope, and identify blame attribution frames, which underpin the publics trust and confidence in domestic and European Union institutions. This article contributes to the systematic understanding of the impact of the debt crisis as a traumatic event on public opinion, and considers its implications for attitudes towards European integration.

‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’: Stereotypes, Prejudices and Emotions on Greek Media Representation of the EU Financial Crisis

The ongoing institutional and economic crisis of the E U has created new stereotypes, as well as facilitated the return of old prejudices across the member states, with important implications for the future of European integration. The crisis has generated broad media coverage challenging the reputations of countries most affected by the recession and those who bear the financial burden of bailouts. Characteristically, Greece has been often described as the ‘sick man of Europe’ (Exadaktylos and Zahariadis, 2014), while references to ‘the sinking euro’, ‘lazy Greeks’, ‘hard-working Germans’ and ‘detached Brits’ are frequently hosted in headlines, news reports and editorial commentary in newspapers across Europe (e.g.. Der Spiegel, 2011; EU Observer, 2011; Forbes, 2011; The Economist, 2011).

Europeanization of Foreign Policy beyond the Common Foreign and Security Policy

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss questions of causality and measurement on national foreign policy beyond the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) framework. In that respect, foreign policy is defined in a broader framework of coordination of economic, political and military tools (Jorgensen, 1997; Smith, 1999). The analysis focuses on how the conduct of national foreign policy has been influenced by the implementation of European Union (EU) enlargement policies as a soft foreign policy tool. The research puzzle then becomes whether the case of Enlargement brought about the Europeanization of the foreign policy of the old member states towards Central and Eastern European candidates. If that case can be argued, then how can we establish causality of Europeanization, isolating it from other determining domestic or global factors?

Looking for Causality in the Literature on Europeanization

Europeanization is like one of those bumblebees that seem to defy the laws of aerodynamics, yet they fly. In 2002, Johan Olsen was lamenting that, several years after his seminal paper on Europeanization and Nation State Dynamics (Olsen, 1995), political scientists were still debating about concepts and definitions (Olsen, 2002). Each author, he argued, appeared to go on with their own concepts and frameworks in mind, and merrily ignore more substantive questions concerning how exactly Europeanization is changing politics and policy at the domestic level. Hussein Kassim (cited by Olsen, 2002) had concluded in 2000 that such an unwieldy field did not deserve too much attention, suggesting the futility of the whole exercise. In the end, Olsen reasoned, Europeanization may be nothing but an attention-directing device.

Risk or Opportunity? Institutional Change and Europe’s Financial Crisis, 2008–12

Crises have long been used as a motor for European integration (Jo, 2007). ‘Europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of solutions adopted for these crises’, pronounced Jean Monnet to highlight the importance of crises in shaping policy change. Most narratives have focused on how periods of turbulence are used as opportunities to overcome old enmities and political opposition to change policies and institutions (Kuhnhardt, 2009). However, crises can also be occasions for decline. Leaders may not draw the ‘right’ lessons and may ultimately create institutions that fail to adequately address the causes and effects of the crisis. What factors explain the institutional reforms observed during Europe’s financial crisis? Institutions are defined as formal and informal rules of behaviour that govern EU macroeconomic and monetary stability.

Lessons Learned: Beyond Causality

The ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, the current financial outlook and sustainability concerns raise the key question of the effects of integration, more so than the origin or the nature of the process itself. The issue is exactly how, where and through which mechanisms and in cornbination with what other agents or parallel processes of change these transformative effects come about.