Negotiation effectiveness: Why some states are better than others in making their voices count in EU negotiations

This article introduces a new concept to negotiation research in political science: negotiation effectiveness. Prominent research focuses on negotiation success, capturing the extent to which a country's initial preferences are reflected in the final outcome. By contrast, focusing on the effectiveness of negotiation strategies allows examining the process by which congruence between initial positions and final negotiation outcomes can be achieved. Negotiation effectiveness measures how effectively a negotiator changes the elements of a policy for which her country developed positions on the basis of its preferences by applying negotiation strategies and by using negotiation capacities. On the basis of an analysis of the European Union's (EU's) day-to-day negotiations, the article maps the differences in the negotiation effectiveness between states. Why are some countries much more effective in shaping EU policies than others? Why do some small countries punch above their weight, while some of the bigger countries are less effective than their size let us expect? In order to answer these questions, the article develops a set of hypotheses and tests them empirically. Comparative European Polities (2012) 10, 111-132. doi:10.1057/cep.2011.3; published online 10 October 2011