engleski

Governance Trends among European Union Countries: Is There Institutional Convergence?

The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we reviewed the existing body of knowledge dealing with the questionable convergence of Eastern European countries as a possible consequence of both the transfer of selected Western formal institutions to those countries and the adoption of the acquis communautaire. This issue dates back to the beginning of the 1990s when the predominant expectation was that successful formal institutions in Western countries would yield the same results in transitional countries. Using descriptive statistics, we show that this is a misconception and that it is highly unlikely that Mediterranean and CEE countries will catch up with the three leading groups (Liberal, Nordic, and Continental countries) in the coming decades. Second, we focused on a quantitative analysis of sigma and beta convergence based on governance trends in the EU in the last two decades. The results also demonstrate rather divergent paths, with Liberal, Nordic, and Continental countries performing much better than Mediterranean and CEE countries.

convergence, divergence, institutions, post-socialism, transition

'Runners-up' award in The Best Paper Award competition