The Effectiveness and Limits of EU Conditionality

This study examines domestic policies in Slovakia from the collapse of communism in 1989 until its EU accession in 2004. It traces policy changes in Slovak healthcare, regional policy, agriculture, and minority protection and assesses the capacity of domestic political actors and external agents to shape the policy arrangements and institutional environment in a democratizing state aspiring to join the EU. The study addresses the issues of democratic transition and consolidation in EU candidate states, evaluates the effectiveness and limits of EU conditionality in the respective policy domains, and contributes to current debates on democratization, Europeanization, and policy transfer.