Blueprints, Red Tape, and Shades of Gray. The Chromatics of Romania's accession to the European Union in economic and administrative perspective

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,3, Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen (Department of Public Management & Governance), language: English, abstract: This study develops a perspective of ambivalent dynamics of institution building in EU applicant countries. The dissemination of institutional design differs in effect according to the sector which is being focused. For the case of Romania it is stated that, in the economic dimension, a neoliberal blueprint was diffused while in the politico-administrative dimension, the EU lacked both, a clear best-practice and strong instruments of enforcement. Treating the weakness of statehood as the dependent variable, in both sectors however, tendencies to the reinforcement of patrimonialist structures can be observed. Those forms of patrimonialism breed problems of corruption and a limited possibility to absorb EU funding. In each case there are cross-sectoral effects observable.