George

1
George Bache Politics in the European Union

• Chapter 1 Theories of European Integration

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Mitrany and Functionalism

• not a theorist of European integration
• root cause of war nationalism
• influenced later advocates of integration
• proposal transfer functional tasks from
  governments to international agencies each having
  authority over one specific area of human life
• international agencies would operate at different
  levels depending on the function that they were
  performing
• opposed world government inimical to individual
  freedom
• opposed regional federations potential
  super-states / national rivalries on a lager
  scale

3
Spinelli and European Federalism

• federalism supported in Resistance
• Spinelli advocated constitutional break and
  federal constitution for Europe
• European Congress The Hague (1948)
• national political elites already restored
• Council of Europe intergovernmental
  organization

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Monnet and Functional-Federalism

• Monnet devised Schuman Plan for European Coal and
  Steel Community
• No great confidence in the free-market system
• Monnet placed his faith in the development of
  supranational institutions as the basis of a
  genuine economic community
• aims
• to develop a European-scale economy
• to control Germany
• to ensure coking coal for French steel industry
• Monnet was described as a functional-federalist
  by Mitrany, but he might be seen as a supreme
  pragmatist who proposed the ECSC as a solution to
  specific practical problems

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Realism

• dominated IR in 1950s
• treated nation states as units of international
  relations
• could not explain European integration

6
Neofunctionalism

• integration would undermine states sovereignty
• states not unified actors
• interest groups important international actors
• integration would spill-over beyond states
  control  

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Spillover

• Three types
• Functional spillover.
• Political spillover.
• Cultivated spillover.

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Functional Spillover

• Because modern industrial economies are made up
  of interdependent parts, it is not possible to
  isolate one sector
• The integration of one sector will only work if
  other sectors are also integrated

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Political Spillover

• Build-up of political pressures in favour of
  further integration within the states involved
• Once interest groups had switched their focus to
  the European level, they would come to appreciate
  the benefits of their sectors integration ? they
  would become advocates of further integration
  since integration in one sector could not be
  fully effective without the integration of other
  sectors
• Interest groups would also form a barrier against
  governments retreating from the level of
  integration that had already been achieved

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Cultivated Spillover

• Neofunctionalists expected the Commission to
  cultivate the process.
• It would broker package deals.
• It would engage interest groups and national
  officials in partnership - engrenage.

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Hoffmanns Intergovernmentalism

• Argued neofunctionalists made three mistakes
• regional integration not a self-contained process
• states uniquely powerful actors
• failed to distinguish between low and high
  politics / integration process would not spread
  to areas of high politics

12
Liberal Intergovernmentalism

• Moravcsik
• insisted states remained in control
• proposed a two-level analysis
• of domestic preference formation
• of EU inter-govermental bargaining
• the major choices in favour of Europe were
  reflections of the preferences of national
  governments, not of the preferences of
  supranational organizations
• national preferences reflected the balance of
  economic interests
• the outcomes of negotiations reflected the
  relative bargaining power od states
• the delegation of decision making authority to
  supranational institutions reflected the wish of
  governments to ensure that the commitments of all
  parties to the agreement would be carried through

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Supranational Governance

• EU as a series of regimes (not as a single
  regime) for different policy sectors
• Three key elements
• Development of transnational society
• Supranational organizations with autonomous
  capacity to pursue integrative agendas
• Focus on European rule-making to resolve
  international policy externalities

14
Realism

• dominated IR in 1950s
• treated nation states as units of international
  relations
• could not explain European integration