Open for Business: Slovakia as a New Member State
Open for Business: Slovakia as a New Member State

Summary/Abstract: Previous explorations into the national preference formation of member states have generated a number of different explanations including size, societal interests, dependency, ideology and unique historical experiences. Although acknowledging that three years of EU membership is an insufficient period of time to arrive at definitive conclusions, in the case of Slovakia we contend that ideology is not such a good indicator, but rather find an explanation based on the country’s recent history and its size combined with the structure of party politics and the preferences of key interest groups. We suggest these insights could be used as the basis for an examination of other new member states, especially, smaller new democracies and new states, invited to begin negotiations at the Helsinki European Council, such as Latvia and Lithuania.

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