Common
European integration: A process whereby political actors in several distinct national settings are persuaded to shift their loyalties, expectations and political activities toward a new centre, whose institutions possess or demand jurisdiction over pre-existing national states. The end result of a process of political integration is a new political community, superimposed over the pre-existing ones.
Many theories have emerged which attempt to explain the process and outcome of integration in Europe. They try to clarify how and why the European Union came about and how it is today. Theories are important as they help us to understand how the EU works, and having a better understanding of how the EU has developed allows us to hypothesize about what the EU might be like in the future.
The purpose of any theory is to describe/explain/predict a phenomenon
So we want to describe/explain/predict:
the speed and direction of European integration overall
the speed and direction of individual policies
the failure to establish certain policies
why progress occurred at certain times and not others
Four "locations" of European integration theory
• The EU as International Organization: what does the EU tell us about the broader category of international organizations?
• EU as an instance of regionalism within the global political economy: what does the EU tell us on states clustering into regional blocs?
• EU and policy-making: what does the EU tell us about the dynamics of policy-making in an interacting political system of nation states and an international organization?
• EU as a sui generis1 phenomenon: a) EU and European integration are not treated as an instance of anything other than itself; EU there-fore cannot be a testing site for broader generalizations; b) EU as an historically-rooted phenomenon
Federalism
***Сharacterictic***
-)F-s plan to form a small group of nonconformists who understand that the national states have lost their proper rights since they cannot guarantee the political and economic safety of their citizens.
-)The term is to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (like states or provinces).
-)They also insist that European Union should be created by the European populations, and not by diplomats, by directly electing a European constituent assembly, and by the approval through a referendum
-)F. describes political systems in which there is a division of authority between central and regional government.
-)Federal system involves the optimum mixture of unity and diversity.
-)Three tendencies in the ideology of federalism: centralistб de-centralistб, balanced-> it indicates that federalism is a very broad term.
-)The unity should act within the powers given to it by the treaty. Its goals are enumerated there.
-)The pursuit of common objectives of the community must be constitutionalized.
***Advantages***
-) It allows the parts of the unity to perform common tasks with maximum efficiency while maximising decentralization and autonomy.
-) It is a way of ensuring constitutional government in many liberal democratic societies
-) Immanuel Kant advocated an expanding federation as the guarantee of safety and a measure against war
-) it ensures efficient governance within a democratic framework, authority is close to the people
-) the prevention of the capture of a system by any one group
-) it rejects domination and any totalitarian politics
-) the federated state becomes a stronger unit in the face of external threat
***Disadvantages***
-) it has an effective control over the means of violence
-) increased distance b/n the governors and the governed. People may not be as loyal to the authorities there as in the nation state
-) owing to the competition between regions within a union new conflicts may emerge
***Federalism encourages: ***
the responsibility of the government to people
the participation of citizens
civil responsibility (it allows local authorities to create and ensure the application of local laws)
4. Functionalism
-)Belongs to the liberal-idealist tradition
-)Foundations of f. tend to believe in human possibilities
Rational, peaceful progress is possible; conflict and disharmony are not inherent in human nature.
-)F. is regarded as an ‘approach rather than a theory’
-)The f. agenda – prioritization of human needs or public welfare
f. idea - ‘form follows function’. Human needs change over time design of institutional solutions needs to be open-minded and flexible process. This is the great strength of f.
-)Main goal – prosperity and peace
-)Instruments of state policy – economic instruments and political acts of will
-)Role of international organizations – substantial; new, functional international organizations will formulate policy and become increasingly responsible for implementation
-)Key figure of f. theory – David Mitrany; Working Peace System (1943)
M. was eager to recommend strategies for achieving systems of lasting peace.
-)Mitrany`s f. offers a largely technocratic vision of human governance. His technocratic anti-dogmatism was extended to state.
According to M., the extension of non-political problems, with which national governments face international cooperation. Dealing with these problems requires cooperation of not only political elites but, more importantly, that of experts in specific areas.
Functional cooperation in one technical area need for a similar cooperation in other areas need for specialized national institutions for coordination and cooperation acceleration of the process of political integration.
-)Ernst Haas: f. resembles the Marxist-Leninist aspiration to replace the ‘government of men’ with ‘administration of things’.
-)! Application of a technocratic and rationalistic approach to human governance – basis of a working peace system.