ABSTRACT
The German political foundations (Politische Stiftungen) have played an important role facilitating party cooperation in countries in transition from authoritarian rule and, more recently, in the context of the transformation of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). As party-related, publicly financed and largely autonomous organizations, these foundations are specific transnational actors. This chapter deals with both theoretical and empirical aspects of a transnationalist perspective in the study of the enlargement of the European Union (EU), focussing particularly on the party cooperation preceding the accession of new member states. The first section discusses the specificity of the research object and the normative bases of the institutional meshing between the foundations, the federal ministries and the political parties; it also provides evidence of the foundations’ involvement in democratization processes. Having sketched out a few of the analytical biases of government-centred research on EU enlargement, the case study of the foundations’ involvement in CEEC allows for the consideration of norm dynamics and legitimation through transnational networks in the study of EU enlargement. Finally, an analysis of the transnational cooperation between the European party federations and the political foundations in the years preceding the accession of new member states to the European Union in 2004, helps us to reconsider the questions of identity and transnational socialization in an enlargement context.
