POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION SINCE THE TREATY OF ROME: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The politics of the European  Community  during transition processes  aŌer the Second World War might be partly framed and largely formulated.  At that stage the politics in the European  Community  was not essentially different from the practices of the governments in any democratic system. As in all modern politics, European Community politics is influenced by questions of representation and participation, the distribution and allocation of recourses,  and political and administrative  efficiency.  In order to develop the research, the early literature on institutions and policy-making will be briefly explored. We argue, that the research on the European  Union moved from international relations paradigms  towards a focus on comparative politics approaches.  We also claim, that comparative politics approaches  emerged as a major reference point in researching  European Union’s institutions and policies. To research the connection between political inputs and outputs on these issues, this article outlines the discourse of “comparative politics”. Finally, the article will contribute  to our understanding  of the reason for changes in the role of the state, derived from the EU’s development  and changing arrangements  of state-society relations, with  some emphasis of the influence of the European Union on the member states in the context of horizontal  and vertical division of powers.