ABSTRACT
The logic of rationalist institutionalism suggests that Europeanization leads to domestic change through a differential empowerment of actors resulting from a redistribution of resources at the domestic level. Debates between neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism, and the ‘multi-level governance’ perspective centred around the question of how to account for the emerging European polity. This research, therefore, adopted a ‘bottom-up’ perspective, in which the dynamics and the outcome of the European institution-building process are the main dependent variable. One can conceptualize the adaptational processes in response to Europeanization in two ways, which in turn lead to different emphases concerning these facilitating factors. Sociological institutionalism suggests that Europeanization leads to domestic change through a socialization and collective learning process, resulting in norm internalization and the development of new identities. Scholars who adopt a ‘top-down’ perspective have used the concept of Europeanization in different ways, which gave rise to considerable confusion in the literature.
