This paper advances hypotheses linking specific European institutions to changes in agent preferences, with my concern being to explore the pathways and mechanisms through which such shifts occur. Drawing upon work in social psychology and communications research, I develop a micro-, process- and agency-based argument on the nature of social interaction within institutions. Empirically, I examine committees of the Council of Europe, the main European rights institution, asking whether the preferences/interests of social agents changed as they discussed and debated issues. Put differently, did they go “native” in Strasbourg?
A later version of this article was published in Comparative Political Studies 36 (1/2): 209-231, 2003.