Explaining the unexpected: efficiency and effectiveness in European decision-making

The legal output of the EU can easily be compared to an average nation-state and surely surpasses that of any other international organization. Although the EU has neither become a state-like entity nor possesses any powers to coerce member states into compliance, its rules are almost always respected. The EU's comparatively good record in terms of efficiency and effectiveness can be understood as the product of an institutional structure that transforms strategic interaction into deliberative problem-solving. Understood as such, the EU resembles a new type of political order which gives evidence that centralized coercion is anything but necessary for a good policy performance.