Many roads lead to international norms, but few via international socialization. A case study of the European Commission

Abstract Can an international organization socialize those who work within it? The European Commission of the European Union is a crucial case because it is an autonomous international organization with a vocation to defend supranational norms+ If this body cannot socialize its members, which international organization can? I develop theoretical expectations about how time, organizational structure, alterna-tive processes of preference formation, and national socialization affect international socialization+ To test these expectations for the European Commission, I use two surveys of top permanent Commission officials, conducted in 1996 and 2002+ The analysis shows that support for supranational norms is relatively high, but that this is more because of national socialization than socialization in the Commission+ National norms, originating in prior experiences in national ministries, loyalty to national polit-ical parties, or experience with one’s country’s organization of authority, decisively shape top officials ’ views on supranational norms+ There are, then, several roads to international norms+ To what extent can an international organization socialize those who work withi