European Integration theoriesPast and present

Luca VerzichelliGGCD Ma – 2015-2016

History matters

• Theories of EI have evolved following historical and political constraints

• Between war and peace, a theory was the result of a research of political stability

• then.. theories about explaining alternation of success and failure, but within a context of stability

• Once that European Integration was finally conceived as a unique example of regional integration, new “pragmatic” theories were emerging on this specific object

First moves of European integrationBasic chronology

• 1945: conferences in Yalta and Potsdam• 1947: Beginning of European recovery program• 1948: Congress of Europe at the Hague• 1949: Establishment of the Council of Europe• 1950: Shuman Plan• 1951: ECSC treaty• 1954: Failure of EDC and establishment of WEU• 1955: Messina conference and Jean Monnet action

committee• 1957: Treaty of Rome, establishing Euratom and EEC

Meaning(s) of Integration• Before WWI: phenomenon connected to the emergence of

“nation/states”• With the emergence of the idea of a international concert,

integration as political goal• The notion of Regional integration developed particularly after WWI

in the IR literature• The first basic works on European Integration developed in the early

sixties:→ Lindberg: regional integration with strong linkages→ Haas: actors persuaded to shift loyalties, expectations and political

activities→ Wallace: intense and persistent of diversified interactions among

previously autonomous units• Late distinctions:→ formal vs. informal integration→ positive vs. negative integration

A classification of EI theoriesTheory General theories Middle-range theories

Discipline International Relations Comparative politics/policies

Main Problem

Dynamics of integrationNature of the new polity

Explanatory factors of political/policy processes

Approaches

Functionalism RealistInter-

governmentalism

Institutionalism Governance Policy network

Functionalism

(M

itrany)

Neofunctionalism

(H

aas)

Transactionalism

Deutsch

Classic realism(H

ofmann)

Liberal inter-governmentalism

(Moravsick)

Cooperative F

ederalism (S

charpf)

Historical institutionalism

Multi level

governance

Epistem

ic comm

unitiesD

ifferent networks