CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Czina, Veronika |
|---|---|
| Title | Small State Influence in the European Union: The Case of 'E-stonia' |
| Summary | There is a common perception in studies of European integration that the European Union is driven by its large Member States and the small ones are forced into the background when it comes to policy-making. However, the number of small countries in the EU and the increasingly profound engagement of scholars in analyzing them suggest that these states are becoming more and more significant in the European political scene. Researchers of small countries have identified several factors which help these states exercise influence in the EU. Nevertheless, there is no consensus about which factors determine the influence of small states and which are insignificant, moreover, some aspects, such as the importance of discursive elements are somewhat neglected in the previous research. These circumstances gave a chance to this thesis to analyze small state influence in the EU through the example of Estonia and its promotion of the issue of cyber security in the past decade. The research has been done through testing four factors, previously identified by the small state literature, on a case that has not been examined before from this aspect. This analysis demonstrates, that policy expertise, agenda-setting by prominent politicians through institutional channels and the special way of framing a problem can be important factors in determining the influence of small Member States in the EU, whereas another factor which is generally claimed to have a great impact on the role of small countries, coalition building, is not always important. |
| Supervisor | Merlingen, Michael |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/czina_veronika.pdf |
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