Europeanization, EU Conditionality, and Governance Quality: Empirical Evidence on Central and Eastern European Countries

A large body of work within the Europeanization and conditionality literature has examined the European Union's effect on governance quality in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). This article aims to contribute to existing work by addressing two questions. First, was the European Union's accession conditionality conducive to better governance in CEECs or was it designed to pick up already committed reformers? Secondly, during which period was the European Union more influential on governance quality in CEECs: accession or membership? To address these questions, we propose a simple model of moral hazard and adverse selection, and draw on survey-based governance quality data to test its predictions. We report that the European Union has offered candidate status to countries that already had better governance quality relative to their peers before 1997. Nonetheless, EU conditionality also had some positive effects on CEEC governance during the accession period, but this effect tended to disappear during the membership period. On the basis of these findings, we argue that the European Union's impact on governance quality in CEECs has to be examined in conjunction with path dependence, and therefore, the perceived risk of “backsliding” requires more detailed analysis.