Bruszt, L. (2025). What Has the European Union Ever Done for Us?. In: Biro-Nagy, A., Medve-Balint, G. (eds) The Path of Hungary’s EU Membership. Studies in Economic Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Abstract: Twenty years after the EU’s Eastern enlargement—and in anticipation of a new wave of integration—the key question remains: to what extent has European integration facilitated or hindered economic development and the consolidation of democratic institutions in the new member states? This chapter contends that the impact is mixed. Although the EU has broadened opportunities […]
Bruszt, L., & Langbein, J. (2025). Building a Transnational Developmental State in Europe: Lessons from the Big Bang enlargement for the next integration round. Journal of European Public Policy, 32(12), 2973–2998.
Abstract: Why should the EU care about the developmental externalities of enlargement? To answer this question, we bridge the enlargement literature, which studies rule transfer prior to accession, and the political economy literature, which examines how economic actors from less developed EU member states adapt to these rules in the post-accession period. Each has its […]
Laszlo Bruszt
Laszlo Bruszt is Professor Emeritus of CEU, Founding Co-Director and Director of CEU Democracy Institute between 2020 and 2025. He started to teach at CEU in 1992 and has served as its Acting Rector and President in 1996/97. Between 2004 and 2016 he was teaching at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. His publications focus […]
Bruszt, L. and Vukov, V. (2024) Core-periphery divisions in the EU? East-west and north-south tensions compared, Journal of European Public Policy, 31(3), 850–873.
Abstract: Divisive politicisation of inequalities among the member states in the EU is the lowest in member states where one would expect the highest level of domestic demand for it, and it is highest in member states in which one would expect much lower demand. In this paper, we argue that the territorially fragmented structure […]
Bruszt, L. and Langbein, J. (co-editors) (2020) “Market integration and room for development in the peripheries”- Special Issue in Review of International Political Economy Volume 27, Issue 5
Abstract: According to the dominating perspective in the literature, transnational market integration has the uniform effect of decreasing the room for development in peripheral economies that do not have the economic and political power of countries like China or Russia. Challenging this perspective, this Special Issue (SI) contrasts different integration strategies yielding dramatically different effects […]
Bruszt, L., & Langbein, J. (2020). Manufacturing development: how transnational market integration shapes opportunities and capacities for development in Europe’s three peripheries: Introduction to the special issue . Review of International Political Economy, 27(5), 996–1019.
Abstract: According to the dominating perspective in the literature, transnational market integration has the uniform effect of decreasing the room for development in peripheral economies that do not have the economic and political power of countries like China or Russia. Challenging this perspective, this Special Issue (SI) contrasts different integration strategies yielding dramatically different effects […]
Bruszt, L., Lundstedt, L., & Munkacsi, Z. (2020). Collateral benefit: the developmental effects of EU-induced state building in Central and Eastern Europe. Review of International Political Economy, 27(5), 1170–1191.
Abstract: According to the literature on economic development, the upgrading of core state institutions is the sine qua non of promoting growth and development in lesser-developed countries. The European Union (EU) is the first transnational integration regime that has experimented with measures to upgrade core state institutions. It did so in the pre-accession period of […]
Bruszt, L., & Karas, D. (2019). Diverging developmental strategies beyond “lead sectors” in the EU’s periphery: the politics of developmental alliances in the Hungarian and Polish dairy sectors. Review of International Political Economy, 27(5), 1020–1040.
Abstract: Due to its focus on high tech sectors and the role played by FDI, the literature dealing with developmental opportunities in Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies underestimates the room for domestic developmental agency. In this paper, we contrast diverging strategies of positioning the Polish and Hungarian dairy sector in European markets. In Hungary, […]
Bruszt, L., & Vukov, V. (2017). Making states for the single market: European integration and the reshaping of economic states in the Southern and Eastern peripheries of Europe. West European Politics, 40(4), 663–687.
Abstract: European integration has profoundly reshaped states in Europe’s peripheries. It has deprived them of the traditional means of autonomously managing development, imposed institutions defending the integrity of the regional market from domestic actors, and provided them, in exchange, with EU-level development policies. However, whereas in the South the EU has relied primarily on incentives […]
Bruszt, L., & Vukov, V. (2017). Making states for the single market: European integration and the reshaping of economic states in the Southern and Eastern peripheries of Europe. West European Politics, 40(4), 663–687.
European integration has profoundly reshaped states in Europe’s peripheries. It has deprived them of the traditional means of autonomously managing development, imposed institutions defending the integrity of the regional market from domestic actors, and provided them, in exchange, with EU-level development policies. However, whereas in the South the EU has relied primarily on incentives for […]