Integration Theories: Methods and Principles

European integration theory is only slowly starting to catch up with modern social theory. Since its early beginnings in the 1950s, integration theory has been the realm of international relations theory. It was responding to concerns of how to overcome the century-long intra-European divide between France and Germany and trying to explain why and under what conditions political integration would lead to a transformation of formerly unsolvable conflicts into politically manageable dissent. Much has changed in the last few years. The scholarly debate has become aware that the emphasis of international relations on international anarchy and the corresponding assumption of political interaction as an exchange of threats and promises is more of an obstacle than a helpful insight if the aim is to understand the process of European integration. Understanding the EU will always remain incomplete if it is not conceptualised as a polity on its own terms. To put it briefly: approaching the EU from the perspective of international relations theory is of only limited use for understanding it. That is why we need to look through out these integration theories: federalism, functionalism and also transaction. 1
Federalism: very important is that this notion is no mentioned in any of the Union Treaties, except the Draft Constitutional Treaty. …