Arenas for Post-Enlargement Socialization? Persuasion, Communicative Action and Socialization after EU Enlargement

Socialization is an undertheorized concept representing a challenge to constructivist approaches to European integration. Although references to the capacity of international institutions to shape actor preferences are common, the processes through which actors are thought to be socialized are not yet specified within the field. Once resolved, this challenge will turn out to strengthen the constructivist project. This paper explores the contributions that a rich tradition in work inspired by Habermas’ theory of communicative action promises to work on the role and impact of socialization dynamics in the integration process. Based on the notion that persuasion, truth-seeking and the force of the better argument play a larger role in European integration than commonly accepted, this paper uses the current round of EU enlargement as an empirical illustration to advance hypotheses about the way in which communicative action inevitably leaves its mark on actor preferences and the socialization processes occurring within institutional settings.