Introduction: European integration and national political systems

European integration as a (potential) force of change in domestic polities and politics is attracting growing scholarly attention. European integration comprises two interrelated processes: the delegation of policy competences and the establishment of a new set of political institutions. Most existing studies of how these processes affect domestic institutional and political orders approach the subject from an institutionalist perspective. While such an approach helps to clarify the links between pressures for change and patterns Of national adaptation, European integration as a source of change cannot be considered in isolation from other (potential) sources of domestic institutional and political change.