ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the special issue use a rather broad and encompassing understanding of institutions. Demonstrating that the EU has induced institutional change directly or indirectly tells us little about compliance with these institutions, however. In fact, diffusion research leads us to expect that the more formal institutions and organ-isational features are simply copied from different local or regional contexts leading to institutional isomorphism, the more likely becomes decoupling between formal rules, informal understandings, and behavioural practices. The special issue starts from the assumption that Europeanization and diffusion research can be fruitfully combined in order to overcome problems of ‘top-down’ approaches that tend to over-emphasise the role of the EU and legal compliance for change. The EU routinely uses positive and negative incentives to induce institutional change in accession candidates and in its neighbourhood, thereby pursuing its own instrumental interests, such as security, stability, prosperity, and environmental protection.
