Overview

In 2004 the European Union and NATO each added ten new member states, most from the post-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. In order to prepare for membership, these countries had to make many thousands of institutional and legal adjustments. Indeed, they often tried to modernize in just a few years, implementing practices that evolved over many decades in Western Europe. This book emphasizes the way that policy elites in Central and Eastern Europe often 'ordered from the menu' of established Western practices. When did this emulation of Western practices succeed and when did it result in a fiasco? Professor Jacoby examines empirical cases in agriculture, regional policy, consumer protection, health care, civilian control of the military, and military professionalism from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, and the Ukraine. The book addresses debates in institutionalist theory, including conditionality, Europeanization, and external influences on democratic and market transitions.

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9780511756221

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Reviews

'Jacoby's book offers a deep and unique insight'. Steve Schwarzer, European Societies 'Mixing thoughtful analysis and detail with great aplomb the publication of Jacoby's book is very much to be welcomed.' Slavonic & East European Review

'Jacoby's book offers a deep and unique insight'. Steve Schwarzer, European Societies 'Mixing thoughtful analysis and detail with great aplomb the publication of Jacoby's book is very much to be welcomed.' Slavonic & East European Review This book is an important contribution to the study of political change, post communist reform, and economic and political integration of Europe. It is thoroughly documented and includes an extensive list of works cited. Highly recommended. CHOICE May 2005 ...this book has much to offer students of comparative and international politics, and not just experts on central and eastern Europe. Anyone with an interest in the explication, application, synthesis, and extension of institutional theories will be richly rewarded. Political Science Quarterly, John S. Duffield, Georgia State University Bringing together rational institutional, sociological institutional, and historical institutional theories in an 'embedded rationalism,' this eloquent political scientist offers a well-written, parsimonious account of Hungarian and Czech emulations of politics and organizations in the EU and in NATO... We are fortunate to have this rigorous and ambitious volume... Contemporary Sociology, Michael D. Kennedy, University of Michigan [A]n excellent and provocative study of the process through which the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have moved to 'return to Europe' following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. Perspectives on Political Science, Forest L. Grieves, University of Montana, Emeritus In the past decade countless trees have been felled to provide the paper for numerous books and articles exploring the process of EU enlargement to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Many of the accounts, particularly those written by the extremist wing of the Europeanization brigade, tend to view the states of CEE as little more than passive consumers of EU dictates... As Wade Jacoby illuminates in his excellent new book, however, international organizations such as the EU and NATO are neither as omnipotent, nor indeed as epiphenomenal, as some scholars have suggested... Mixing thoughtful analysis and detail with great aplomb the publication of Jacoby's book is very much to be welcomed. Slavonic and East European Review, Tim J. Haughton, Centre for Russian and East European Studies, European Research Institute, University of Birmingham Jacoby has transcended the existing debates surrounding reform in central Europe and has offered readers a new conceptual framework with which to analyse conditionality and institutional reform in general. Journal of Common Market Studies, David J. Galbreath, University of Aberdeen The enlargement of Europe has proven a lush garden for researchers to cultivate new approaches and theories of international and comparative politics... Wade Jacoby's piece fits squarely into [the] large and excellent body of growing literature--theoretically sophisticated, methodologically sound, and well written. Impressive in his attention to detail, smooth writing style, and adherence to familiarity to notation and the body of literature... Perspectives on Politics, Peter Loedel, West Chester University [A] readable and well informed case-study of CEE, notably on the military fields... of value to academics and other professionals, as well as to the general reader. International Affairs, Thomas Horber, University of Victoria, Canada Wade Jacoby has written an important work on the phenomenon of policy emulation in the transition countries of Central Europe... [His book] will be read as a landmark study. Comparative Political Studies, Mitchell A. Orenstein, Syracuse University The enlargement of the European Union and NATO involves a massive transfer and adaptation of organizations and institutions for new member states in central and eastern Europe. Wade Jacoby's book is one of the first research monographs to analyze this process in a theory-oriented and comparative way. The book is empirically rich and carefully designed. Slavic Review, Frank Schimmelfennig, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich In this latest contribution to the debate on European Union and NATO enlargement, Jacoby makes a convincing case for the application of new institutionalist theory alongside the well-established concept of emulation... A very valuable read indeed. Political Studies Review, Michael J. Steffend, University of Sheffield [This book] has several natural audiences: Scholars of institutional diffusion and rule transfer will benefit from the book's theorization of the politics of emulation... [F]urthermore, the book speaks to a larger audience in international relations and comparative politics... European Union Studies Association Review, Beate Sissenich, Indiana University [T]he underlying originality and relevance of his work should not be overlooked in research on democracy in post-leverage CEE. Democratization, Sean Hanley, University College London, UK Jacoby has written a useful and interesting book... The Journal of Strategic Studies, Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute ... In seeking to explain the drive for both NATO and EU membership and reform in the health sector, Wade Jacoby's work is perhaps the most ambitious and theoretically rich... Journal of European Integration, Roger Levy, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

Author Information

Wade Jacoby is Associate Professor of Political Science and director of the Center for the Study of Europe at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His first book, Imitation and Politics: Redesigning Modern Germany was a Choice Outstanding Academic Book for 2000, and he has published in many journals, including Comparative Political Studies, Politics and Society, The Review of International Political Economy, East European Constitutional Review, WSI-Mitteilungen, Governance, German Politics and Society, and The British Journal of Industrial Relations. Jacoby received the Carl Friedrich Prize of the American Political Science Association and was a German Marshall Fund visiting scholar at both the Center for German and European Studies and the Center for Slavic and East European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

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