Normative Emulation and the Diffusion of Institutional Frameworks from the European Union to the African Union

ABSTRACT The European and African experiences of integration have followed different historical trajectories. However, Africa’s approach to regionalism seems to be dominated by European conceptions in two areas: political and institutional. From an institutional perspective, a number of European Union and African Union institutions bare certain similarities. Do these institutional similarities represent traceable evidence of the diffusion of regional integration from the European Union to the African Union? This article answers this question using a process tracing methodology within a policy transfer and diffusion framework. It tests for evidence of diffusion haven occurred through conditionalities (incentives) offered from EU support for Africa’s continental integration as well as for lesson drawing and emulation by the AU. It finds no traceable evidence of diffusion from the EU to the OAU/AU between 1963 to 2003 and concludes that normative emulation is the most probable cause of the institutional similarities between the EU and AU.