Europeanization and Informal Networks in Southeastern Europe

<p><i>Europeanization and Informal Networks in Southeastern Europe</i> considers the impact of political culture including informal rules which regulate political behaviour on formal political processes. Exploring the EU accession processes of Slovenia Croatia and Serbia the author identifies how the working and social culture of political elites enabled and/or constrained the ability of the respective legislatures to pass the reforms necessary to become members of the EU.</p><p>The innovative approach quantifies informality at the elite level taking a rigorous multi-methods approach to identifying the sometimes-subtle impact of informal cultures on formal political processes. In doing so it demonstrates the added value from studying informality by providing a richer understanding of the factors which help motivate and drive political action and which may be invisible to an outside observer. By examining features such as the connectedness of individuals and key committees Mesarovich finds that hierarchical network structures can both accelerate and interfere with reform processes under different conditions.</p><p>This book advances the field of Europeanization both within the framework of accession and more broadly by highlighting network-level and individual factors which can deeply impact state-wide political outcomes and will be of primary interest to an academic audience interested in the region EU studies Social Network Analysis and regional politics.</p>