Cutting through the “misfit” jungle: can a re-consideration of the goodness-of-fit hypothesis help us understand the transposition of EU anti-discrimination directives in Austria?

Research in the field of EU transposition studies has often been divided about the nature and number of independent variables that would be needed to understand actual patterns of “differential” transposition across Europe. In turn, extant approaches can only partially explain the observed transposition and implementation gap in the European Union. One of the most common, yet most contentious independent variables used in the discipline is the so-called “misfit hypothesis”. The misfit looks at how much EU requirements match the domestic status quo and, in turn, how this match impacts upon transposition processes and outcomes. Empirically, however, the argument has proven inconclusive. A vibrant debate has recently been launched among proponents and detractors of the argument. This paper seeks to contribute to this debate by proposing a comprehensive theoretical re-evaluation of the hypothesis, both from a conceptual and operational perspective. Only by “cutting through the jungle” of existing misfit definitions and operationalisations can a path be cleared for a future, more successful use of the hypothesis. The paper presents a novel conceptualisation of the hypothesis, relevant for the study of transposition processes and outcomes. The conceptualisation is illustrated through the Austrian transposition experience of two EU Anti-discrimination directives.

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