Neo-functionalism: Obstinate or Obsolete? A Reappraisal in the Light of the New Dynamism of the EC

Donald J. Puchala , 'Of Blind Men, Elephants and International Integration ', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 10, No. 3, 1972), p. 267.

I use the term 'European Community' throughout the essay, although the three communities were not formally merged until 1967.

Stanley Hoffmann , 'Obstinate or Obsolete? The Fate of the Nation-State and the Case of Western Europe', Daedalus (Vol. 95, 1966), p. 862.

Paul Taylor , 'The New Dynamics of EC Integration in the 1980s', in Juliet Lodge (ed.), The European Community and the Challenge of the Future (London: Pinter, 1989), p. 23.

For an account of the differences and similarities between functionalism and neo-functionalism, see Paul Taylor , 'Introduction', in David Mitrany (ed.), The Functional Theory of Politics (London: Martin Robertson, 1975), pp. ix-xxv; Paul Taylor , The Limits of European Integration (London: Croom Helm, 1983), pp. 1-25; and Juliet Lodge , The European Community: Bibliographical Excursions (London : Pinter, 1983), pp. 12-16.

See David Mitrany , A Working Peace System ( London: RIIA and Broadwater Press, 1944), pp. 5-7; and David Mitrany , 'The Prospect of Integration: Federal or Functional', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 4, No. 2, 1965), pp. 123-34.

Stephen George , Politics and Policy in the European Community (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), pp. 4-9.

See Pierre Gerbet , 'La genese du Plan Schuman: Des origines a la declaration du 9 mai 1950', Revue française de science politique (July-September 1956), pp. 549-51.

Ernst B. Haas , The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social and Economic Forces, 1950-1957 (London: Stevens, 1958 ), pp. xv-xvi.

Ibid., p. 16.

Ibid., pp. 7-8.

Leon N. Lindberg , The Political Dynamics of Eurnpean Integration (Stanford, CA: Princeton University Press, 1971), p. 6. Emphasis in original.

Karl W. Deutsch et. al., Political Community and the North Atlantic Area ( Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957), p. 6.

Ibid., p. 5.

Ernst B. Haas , 'The Study of Regional Integration: Reflections on the Joy and Anguish of Pretheorizing', in Leon N. Lindberg and Stuart A. Scheingold (eds.), Regional Integration: Theory and Research (Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1971 ), p. 6.

Haas , op. cit, in note 9, pp. 283-317; Lindberg , op. cit, in note 12, pp. 10-11.

This three-fold distinction is adopted from George, op. cit., in note 7, pp. 21-28, who however calls his third category 'the role of the Commission'. My terminology therefore entails a very broad usage of the concept of 'spill-over'. In general, there is much ambiguity in the neofunctionalist literature as to the exact meaning of the term, See Leon N. Lindberg and Stuart A. Scheingold , Europe's Would-Be Polity (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1970), p. 156.

Haas , op. cit, in note 9, p. 297; Lindberg , op. cit, in note 12, p. 10.

See Gerbet , op. cit, in note 8, p. 542.

Ibid., pp. 550-51.

Lindberg , op. cit, in note 12, pp. 45-6.

About this distinction, see John Pinder , 'Positive Integration and Negative Integration: Some Problems of Economic Union in the EEC', The World Today (Vol. 24, No. 3, 1968). pp. 88-110, in particular p. 90.

Lindberg , op. cit, in note 12, p. 9.

Haas , op. cit, in note 9, p. 17.

Acknowledged by Leon N. Lindberg. See his op. cit., in note 12, p. 9.

Ibid., pp. 49-93.

See, for example, Paul Taylor , The Limits of European Integration (London: Croom Helm, 1983), pp. 9-10.

Haas , op. cit. in note 9, p. xiii.

It should be noted, however, that Lindberg generally put slightly less emphasis on the role of the Commission than Haas, and that he originally deliberately eschewed the term 'supranationality'. See Lindberg , op. cit., in note 12, p. 8.

Ernst B. Haas , 'International Integration: The European and the Universal Process', International Organization (Vol. 15, No. 3, 1961), pp. 367-8.

Haas , op. cit, in note 9, p. 311.

Lindberg , op. cit, in note 12, p. 293.

George , op. cit, in note 7, pp. 100-07.

See Leon N. Lindberg. 'Integration as a Source of Stress on the European Community System', International Organization (Vol. 20, No. 2, 1966), pp. 247-51; Roy Pryce , The Politics of the European Community (London: Butterworths, 1973) pp. 12-16.

See Lindberg , op, cit, in note 34, pp. 233-65; and Nina Heathcote , 'The Crisis of European Supranationality', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 5, No. 2, 1966), pp. 140-71.

Pryce , op. cit, in note 34, p. 19.

This development has been described by a number of authors. See, for example, Helen Wallace , William Wallace and Carol Webb (eds.), Policy-Making in the European Community ( Chichester: John Wiley, 1983); Taylor , op. cit, in note 27, pp. 60-92; George , op. cit, in note 7, pp. 12-14; and Juliet Lodge , 'EC Policymaking: Institutional Considerations', in Lodge (ed.), op. cit., in note 4, pp. 26-55.

Carole Webb , 'Theoretical Perspectives and Problems', in Wallace, Wallace and Webb (eds.), op. cit., in note 37, pp. 1-41.

See Hoffmann , op. cit, in note 3; Stanley Hoffmann. 'Discord in Community: The North Atlantic Area as a Partial International System', International Organization (Vol. 17, No. 3, 1963), pp. 521-49; and Stanley Hoffmann , 'Reflections on the Nation-State in Western Europe Today', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 21, Nos. I and 2, 1982), pp. 21-37.

Hoffmann , op. cit, in note 3, p. 864.

Ibid., pp. 864-65.

Responding to criticisms, Stanley Hoffmann later acknowledged that the labels 'high' and 'low' cannot be permanently attached to particular issue areas, but that they rather are a matter of momentary saliency. See 'Reflections on the Nation-State in Western Europe Today', op. cit., in note 39, pp. 29-30.

Hoffmann , op. cit, in note 3, p. 882; Stanley Hoffmann , 'Discord in Community: The North Atlantic Area as a Partial International System', op. cit, in note 39, p. 531.

Webb, op. cit., in note 38, pp. 10-15. Interestingly, Keohane and Nye, the most prominent interdependence theorists, explicitly and repeatedly acknowledge their indebtedness to the neo-functionalists. See Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye , 'International Interdependence and Integration', in Fred Greenstein and Nelson Polsby (eds.), Handbook of Political Science (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1975), p. 365; Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye , Power and Interdependence, Second Edition (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1989), pp. 247-48.

See, for example, Ernst B. Haas , 'Technocracy, Pluralism and the New Europe ', in Stephen Graubard (ed.), A New Europe? (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1964), pp. 62-88, especially p. 65.

Keohane and Nye , 'International Interdependence and Integration', op. cit., in note 44, pp. 363-414.

Ibid., pp. 394-95.

Haas , op. cit, in note 45, p. 77.

Ernst B. Haas , 'The Uniting of Europe and the Uniting of Latin America', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 5, No. 4, 1967), pp. 315-43.

See Leon N. Lindberg , 'The European Community as a Political System: Notes Towards the Construction of a Model', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 5, No. 4, 1967), pp. 344-87 ; and Lindberg and Scheingold , op. cit, in note 17.

Haas , op. cit, in note 15, pp. 18-26.

Ernst B. Haas , The Obsolescence of Regional Integration Theory (Research Series, No. 25, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley CA, 1975), p. 1.

Ibid., p. 17.

Ibid., p. 86.

Webb , op. cit, in note 38, p. 9.

Commission of the European Community , Completing the Internal Market (Brussels, COM(85) 310 final, 1985).

Commission of the European Community , 'The Economics of 1992', European Economy (Brussels , No. 35, 1988), pp. 166-67; Paulo Cecchini , The European Challenge 1992: The Benefits of a Single Market (Aldershot : Wildwood House, 1988), pp. 99-102.

Bulletin of the European Community (S.2/86), p. 24.

See, for example, Juliet Lodge , 'The Single European Act: Towards a New Euro-Dynamism ?', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 24, No. 3, 1986), pp. 210-19; Richard Corbett , 'The 1985 Intergovemmental Conference and The Single European Act', in Roy Pryce , The Dynamics of European Union (London: Croom Helm, 1987), pp. 238-72.

The Commission's second status report on the Internal Market , cited in Agence Europe, 23 November 1990 .

Ibid.

Ibid. See also Peter M. Smidhuber , 'Der Binnenmarkt 1992 - Eine Herausforderung für die Gesetzgebung der Gemeinschaft und der Mitgliedstaaten', Europa-Archiv (3/1989), pp. 75-84.

Claus-Dieter Ehlermann , 'The Institutional Development of the EC Under the Single European Act', Ausssenpolitik (Vol. 41, No. 2, 1990), pp. 138-41.

Commission of the European Community , The Social Dimension of the Internal Market (Brussels, SEC(88) 1148 final, 1988).

Harvey Armstrong , 'Community Regional Policy', in Lodge (ed.), op. cit., in note 4, pp. 167-85.

Bulletin of the European Community, (12/1989 ), p. 11.

Committee for the Study of Economic and Monetary Union 'Delors Committee', Report on Economic and Monetary Union in the European Community (Brussels, 1989).

Bulletin of the European Community (6/1989 ), p. 11.

Bulletin of the European Community (12/1989 ), pp. 11-12.

Agence Europe, 29/30 October 1990.

These developments are touched upon by a number of authors. See, for example, Helmut Schmitt von Sydow , 'The Basis Strategies of the Commission's White Paper', in R. Bieber, R. Dehousse, J. Pinder and J. Weiler (eds), 1992: One European Market? A Critical Analysis of the Commission's Internal Market Strategy (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1988), pp. 99-100; Nicholas Colchester , 'Europe's Internal Market: After the Fireworks', Economist (9 July 1988), p. 50; Nicholas Colchester , 'Europe's Internal Market: What are they building?', Economist (8 July 1989), p. 56; Lars Kolte , 'Beslutningsprocessen i EF 1985-89', Politica (Vol. 21, No. 4, 1989). especially pp. 388-89; Schmidhuber , op. cit, in note 62, pp. 76-79; Lodge (ed.), op. cit., in note 4, pp. 23, 29, 49, 64-77; Ehlermann , op. cit, in note 63.

For an elaboration on the distinction between 'positive' and 'negative' integration and its relation to the Internal Market, see Juliet Lodge , 'Introduction: Internal Perspectives', in Lodge (ed.), op. cit., in note 4, p. 87; John Pinder , 'The Single Market: A Step Towards European Union', in ibid., pp. 107-08; Troels Norup Panild , 'Det indre marked og integrationsteori', Politica (Vol. 21, No. 4, 1989), pp. 449-51.

John Alderson , 'Are Border Controls Necessary?', in Bieber, Dehousse , Pinder and Weiler (ed.), op. cit., in note 71, pp. 303-11.

Whether or not the EMS will be strong enough to sustain the pressure is disputed among economists. For the view that it will not, see Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa , 'Questions about Creating a European Capital Market', in Bieber, Dehousse, Pinder and Weiler, op. cit, in note 71, especially pp. 289-92. For the view that it will in the short run, but not in the long run, see Frank McDonald and George Zis , 'The European Monetary System: Towards 1992 and Beyond', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 27, No. 2, 1989), pp. 195-99. Despite their disagreement as to the nature of strength of the functional link, both argue that EMU will be economically desirable at any rate.

See Peter Robson , The Economics of International Integration, Third Edition ( London: Unwin Hyman, 1987), pp. 176-79: and Jacques Pelkmans and Alan Winters , Europe's Domestic Market ( London: Routledge for the RIIA, 1988 Chatham House Papers, No. 43), pp. 71-74.

Juliet Lodge , 'EC Policymaking: Institutional Considerations ', in Lodge (ed.), op. cit ., in note 4, pp. 40-41; Stanley Hoffmann , 'The European Community and 1992', Foreign Affairs (Vol. 68, No. 4, 1989), pp. 34-35.

Earlier research has raised some doubts as to whether learning takes place as expected by the neo-functionalists. On the contrary, previous findings seem to confirm Graham T. Allison's observation that '[w]here you stand depends on where you sit", cf. his Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1971), p. 176. See, for example, Taylor , op. cit, in note 27, p. 50; or, Webb , op. cit., in note 38, pp. 19-20.

Jacques Pelkmans and Peter Robson , 'The Aspirations of the White Paper', Journal of Common Market Studies (Vol. 25, No. 3, 1987), p. 184.

Helen Wallace , 'Europaische Integration: Auf dem Weg nach 1992 ', Europa-Archiv (20/1988), p. 586; Hoffmann , op. cit, in note 76, p. 33.

Nicholas Colchester , 'Europe's Internal Market: What Are They Building? ', Economist (8 July 1989), p. 12.

Pelkmans and Robson , op. cit, in note 78, p. 184.

Jens Henrik Haahr , Labour, Sacialdemakratiet og realiseringen af EF's indre marked (Conference paper presented at the 9th Nordic Congress for Political Science in Reykjavik, Institute of Political Science, Aarhus, Denmark, 1990), pp. 25-26.

Ibid., pp. 16-29.

Ibid.

See the Danish memorandum on EMU and Political Union, cited in Agence Europe, 19 October 1990.

See, for example, her famous Bruges speech, Text of Speech Given by the Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher FRS MP on Europe in Bruges, Belgium on Tuesday 20 September 1988 (London: Prime Minister's Press Office, 1988), pp. 25-34.

See Taylor , op. cit, in note 4, pp. 22-23 or Colchester , op. cit, in note 80, pp. 44-49.

This is, for instance, very much in evidence in the working document on the Social Dimension and the Delors Report on EMU. See Commission of the European Community , op. cit., in note 64, pp. 1-5; and op. cit, in note 67, pp. 4-7.

Lindberg and Scheingold , op. cit, in note 17, pp. 249-78.

See, for example, Helen Wallace , Europe: The Challenge of Diversity (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul for the RIIA, 1985 Chatham House Papers, No. 29).

See, for example, Commission of the European Community, Action Plan: Coordinated Assistance from the Group of 24 to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Romania and Yugoslavia (Brussels, SEC(90) 843 final, 1990).

Europa-Archiv (1-1990), pp. D9-D10.