Transposition Strategy and Political Time in the Europeanisation of Social Norms: Comparing Transposition of the Anti-discrimination Directives in Germany and Austria

Abstract

EU-level rule-making on social norms has been increasing since the 1990s, whose transposition sometimes has political repercussions. As a case study of such Europeanisation of social norms, this paper examines the transposition of anti-discrimination directives in Germany and Austria. Through the comparison of these two examples, based on the most similar case design, this paper contends that domestic political processes should be given more weight in the Europeanisation studies. Specifically, this paper highlights two factors influencing the Europeanisation. The one is the transposition strategy of the government, which is strategically determined in view of the electoral payoff. The choice of strategy influences transposition success or failure, and the legislative outcome. The more the government utilizes the European input for galvanizing its core constituencies, the higher the risk of transposition failure becomes. The other is the time constraint on the Member States. Whether the European input becomes asset or liability depends not only on the nature of the issue or the goodness of fit but also on the timing the issue is raised. One of the difficulties the governments face in the Europeanisation process is that political time management is constrained by the transposition deadline. Sometimes the governments have to choose between electoral misfortune and transposition delay. Further, the paper also illustrates how an attempt to legitimize further integration causes the collision of norms. This would suggest the difficulty of eliminating democratic deficit at a brush, e.g. by the constitution.