Europeanization and the Mechanics of Economic Policy Adjustment

To explain divergence in member-state policy adjustment in response to the economic pressures of globalization and Europeanization (distinguished from European integration as the impact of EU level decisions on national level policies and institutions), this paper identifies five mediating factors: economic vulnerability, political institutional capacity, policy legacies, policy preferences, and discourse. In addition to these factors, it outlines four institutional adjustment pressures, including when an EU model is required, recommended, suggested, or not, to help explain the differential outcomes to Europeanization, whether policy inertia, absorption, or transformation. To illustrate, it focuses on the policy responses of three countries, France, Britain, and Germany, in such sectors as monetary policy, financial services, telecommunications, electricity, transport, the environment, and employment.