The emergence and analysis of European data protection regulation

During the past decades, the issue of data protection regulation has constantly been gaining considerable attention on the policy agenda of the European Union and its member states. Following fierce political debate and a turbulent policy process, an important outcome was the adoption of the EU General Data Protection Regulation in April 2016. However, political science still rather ignores the importance of data protection politics, which results in a poorly theorized and scarcely researched field. Thus, the aim of this paper is to introduce the topic of European data protection politics in order to emphasize its importance for political science and to motivate further research into the issue. This is done by providing an overview of the explanatory strengths and weaknesses of the current state of re-search, by guiding the reader through the evolution and stages of European data protection politics, and by indicating possible starting points for subsequent analyses.