Democratic club convergence in the European Union

The transition to European Union membership by central, eastern and southern European countries involved meeting the Copenhagen political conditionality. The requirement to show compliance with the criteria of “stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities” has led to substantive policy reforms all across accession countries. As an acknowledgement of their progress, in 2004, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, respectively; in 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union. However, the question of post-accession democratization remains limitedly understood from the perspective of how it erodes democracy in the European Union. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the A10 or the “eastern enlargement”, including Bulgaria and Romania, the question of EU-level democratic convergence remains a significant theme for study. The question could be phrased as do democracies across the enlarged European Union converge? And if yes, towards what democracies in the European policy converge? If not, what would outright democratic convergence mean for the European project? Last, could there be a scenario of club convergence across Eu member states? To study the above question, the panel invited primarily quantitative comparative papers using Polity, Polyarchy or the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index.