CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Slobodian, Liliia |
|---|---|
| Title | EU Democratization and the Russian Elephant in the Room: the Case of Ukraine |
| Summary | In light of the opposing takes of constructivists and rationalists on the key drivers behind the imposition of EU conditionality, the study introduces the alternative explanatory variable and poses the question of how geostrategic factors alter the nature and effectiveness of EU leverage on countries that seek EU membership. The central objective here is to show that when driven by geostrategic motives, EU integration offer tends to enjoy the de facto unconditional character which sways power relationship from asymmetrical interdependence favoring the EU to symmetrical interdependence between Union and the aspiring country. This, in turn, disincentivizes the domestic transformation by impeding the credibility of exclusion threats and membership prospect. By answering the research question, the thesis aims at making a theoretical contribution to the existing literature on EU external democracy promotion. To that end, the study turns to the framework of EU leverage offered by Milada Anna Vachudova and applies the crucial-case method by analyzing EU-Ukraine interplay before and after the year of 2014. |
| Supervisor | Corduneanu-Huci, Cristina |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/slobodian_liliia.pdf |
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