Explaining Compliance with EU Througt Policy Implementation Theory

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Pages: 210-221

Abstract:

EU accession has been one of the most successful policies of the Union. Conditionality and compliance with EU norms have been the instruments used to ensure that the transformative power of the EU reached post-communist countries. There have been two main theoretical models explaining how compliance and implementation of policies have helped in this process: topdown and bottom-up. However, these approaches are challenged when it comes to EU accession in post-communist contexts, such as Albania. They are not able to capture and fully understand the entire landscape of the implementation process, but rather give separate and inconclusive elements of explanation. In this paper, I discuss policy implementation theories in the context of EU accession and compliance. The explanatory framework is derived from an inductive work based on the Albanian accession process. Rather than top-down, bottom-up, and mixed approaches that several authors have used, I argue that this process can be understood better by new modes of governance based on multilevel approach, rather than by rigid models which were developed mainly as domestic policy implementation without external pressure. Understanding coordination and interaction patterns between the many stakeholders at different levels of governance, nationally and internationally, offers a more complete picture and an in-depth understanding and explanation about compliance and implementation performance.

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