So far ten countries of the post-communist European states successfully completed the process of EU accession. This paper assesses the implications of accessions for democratic quality of the respective countries and answers to the question of whether or not there is a link between EU membership and democratic quality. The study aims at a broader understanding of the implications of membership for (national) democratic institutions and should provide a basis for further research. The Democracy Barometer serves as template for an extensive data matrix assessing changes in democratic quality over time and countries. The dataset features ten countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) over 16 years (1995 to 2010) and therefore covers both pre- and post-accession phase. The paper analyses changes in democratic quality over time and contrasts the two time spans before and after accession. On the basis of this analysis following questions will be discussed in this paper: Did democratic quality increase linear over time? Is there a difference between the pre- and the post-accession phase? Do the ten countries included in this study show similar patterns? How do different dimensions of democracy (for instance Participation) develop over time? Does it make a difference whether to approach the changes in democratic quality on basis of a liberal, a participatory or a deliberative theoretical concept of democracy? The paper also comments on common problems in the field of quantitative democracy research and proposes some changes in order to answer to existing shortcomings in regards to theoretical concepts, methodological challenges and conceptual difficulties.
