Classical Theories of Cooperation and Integration

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Classical Theories of Cooperation and Integration

• Functionalism
• Federalism
• Neofunctionalism

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The two logics of the integration process
Creation of welfare by market integration and
management of inter-national economic
inter-dependencies
Resultant direction of the integration process
Peace by cooperation and common
security production
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The two logics of the integration process 2
Creation of welfare by market integration and
management of inter-national economic
inter-dependencies
Resultant direction of the integration process
Functional economic, societal, and political
necessities caused by the progress of the forces
of production and resultant changes in the
societal super- structure
Peace by cooperation and common
security production
Necessity of integration to avoid further
conflicts in (Western) Europe by embedding (and
thereby controlling) the German industrial and
military potential in a supra- national
governance structure supported by overcoming
traditional German French enmities
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The two logics of the integration process 3
Creation of welfare by market integration and
management of inter-national economic
inter-dependencies
Resultant direction of the integration process
Functionalism Neofunctionalism Interdependence
Regime Theories
Multilevel Governance Approaches
Peace by cooperation and common
security production
Federalism, Inter- Governmentalism, Neoliberal
Institutionalism
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TRADITIONAL APPROACHES TO THE EUROPEAN
INTEGRATION PROCESS OR The Dialectic of
Supranationalism and Intergovernmentalism
SUPRANATIONALISM
INTERGOVERNMENTALISM
National states transfer certain rights or parts
of their sovereignty to a supra-national
authority constituted as an independent
international actor by international treaty
National states cooperate on the (inter-)
governmental level without formally questioning
parts of their sovereignty or limiting the
execution of their sovereign rights
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DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON THE INTEGRATION PROCESS
Functionalism Neofunctionalism
Federalism Intergovernmentalism
Moves towards closer integration
gradually/incrementally advanced by a multitude
of political and economic actors on the basis of
individual/organisational learning processes
leading to (integration-friendly) positive
changes of political and socioeconomic
preferences
Integration as a result of political negotiation
processes consciously entered into by national
actors on the basis of previously defined
political and socioeconomic preferences
Process of multilateral decision-making in an
administration union (Zweckverband) of states
Process of collective decision-making in a
network of actors
COMMON AIM
Development of shared solutions to shared policy
problems (Helen Wallace)
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Theories of international Integration and
Cooperation
political solutions(moved by political will/
expressed decisions)
functional solutions(moved by inherent
necessities)
general aim institutionalization of the
constitutive conditions necessary for achieving a
stable peace structure
problem creation of a security community in
(Western) Europe to prevent the outbreak of a
new war supranational regulation of economic
issue areas as precondition for the (political)
peace-stabilizing community-building process
Federalism
Functionalism
problem actors reaction towards emerging
political, economic and social interdependencies
in the context of the internationalization/globali
zation of socioeconomic relations within the
spheres of production, distribution, services,
communications
Problem guaranteeing governance without
government in the societal world
Neoliberal Institutionalism
Theory of Fusion
ideal solution development of a supranational
constitutional authority including democratically
legitimated and controlled monopoly of power at
the interface of domestic democratic politics and
internationally regulated cooperation stabilized
through compromise and adjustment within legal
procedures
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Theories and Strategies of European
IntegrationFunctionalism andNeofunctionalismor
form follows function
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Forefathers

• David MITRANY
• One might say indeed that the true task of
  peaceful change is to remove the need and the
  wish for changes of frontiers.
• (Mitrany, D. (1943). A Working Peace System,
  Chicago)

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Functionalism

• Emergence and growth of international
  organizations is a consequence of the autonomy of
  industrial societies, characterized by the
  progress of the forces of production , and the
  internationalization of socio-economic problem
  complexes, which can only be resolved by means of
  inter-state or supra-state cooperation. Thus,
  international organizations can be compared to
  administrative/ executive unions or a
  Zweckverband, active in primarily technical
  non-political issue-areas. They simultaneously
  relieve states of some of their tasks and deprive
  them of some of their power without incorporating
  them in a superior political entity. The
  internationalization of problem complexes is
  governed by the logic of functional necessity
  functional necessities thus produce on the
  international level mechanisms of collective
  problem resolution and the concomitant adequate
  organisational forms.
• Distinctive feature Economic and social problems
  produce their own (framework of) respective
  solutions international cooperation is
  legitimized by the usefulness and efficiency of
  concrete, issue-specific (technical) cooperation
  and its outcomes.
• Catchword Form follows function.

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Assumptions I

• Human nature
• rational and cooperative behaviour
• State
• need-centric rather than state-centric
  perspective
• human needs and public welfare rather than power
  politics
• International system
• transnational problem solving
• interdependence
• globalisation

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Assumptions II

• International agencies
• render war irrational / impossible through
  collective transnational problem solving and
  mutual dependence
• more conducive to the maintenance of
  international peace and stability
• transcend any anarchical structures in world
  politics

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Neofunctionalism

• As socioeconomic problems of highly
  industrialized societies, due to their
  border-transgressing causes and consequences,
  cannot be resolved any longer by individual state
  action but require comprehensive solutions that
  encompass all actors, the integration of several
  actors arises out of purely functional
  necessities.
• At the beginning of the integration process
  actors formally agree (contractual arrangements)
  to solve problems within technical, functional,
  non-political and small sector-based issue areas
  (low politics) in a technocratic and
  non-ideological way. As cooperative management
  and problem solving approaches prove to be
  successful, they expand to other related
  functional task-areas and will finally spill over
  into genuinely political (high politics) issue
  areas, where they also initiate a gradual process
  of integration (logic of integration by sectors
  supranational communitisation of state functions
  in a succession of neighbouring policy areas
  produces quasi-automatic integration by means of
  spill-over effects).
• Distinctive feature Political actors play a
  decisive role in the process of combining the
  requirements of problem solutions and adequate
  institutional provisions they transfer their
  loyalties and benefit expectations in an
  ever-intensifying manner to the supranational
  level, thereby legitimizing and stimulating the
  integration process.

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• Assumptions
• rejection of the state and
• power concept
• ? human beings are essentially
• ? cooperative and act rationally
• same (transnational)
• problems
• interest in joint problem
• solving

• Logics
• form follows function
• spill-over
• Sachlogik
• from single market to political
• union
• problem-solving by emphasising
• expertise
• epistemic communities
• transfer of loyalty and sovereignty

• Institutions
• technocracy
• European Commission as
• engine of integration, produces
• consensus
• technocratic knowledge as
• source of legitimacy (ECB)
• close interaction between
• administration and interest-
• groups

• Strategies
• functional governance
• self-perpetuating process with
• open finalité
• cultivated spill over

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The logic of transborder cooperation
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• Theories and Strategies of European Integration
• Federalism
• (Neo-)Federalism
• or function follows form

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Forefathers

• Immanuel KANT
• But peace can neither be inaugurated nor
  secured without a general agreement between the
  nations thus a particular kind of league, which
  we might call a pacific federation (foedus
  pacificaum), is required.
• (Kant, I. (1795). Perpetual Peace A
  Philosophical Sketch)
• Alexander HAMILTON
• To look for a continuation of harmony between a
  number of independent unconnected sovereignties
  situated in the same neighbourhood, would be to
  disregard the uniform course of human events and
  to set at defiance the accumulated experience of
  ages.
• (Federalist Papers, Federalist n 6, Concerning
  the Dangers from Dissensions between States)

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and successors

• Winston CHURCHILL
• We must build a kind of United States of Europe
  freely joined together for mutual convenience
  in a federal system. We must re-create the
  European Family in a regional structure called,
  it may be, the United States of Europe.
• Therefore I say to you let Europe arise!
• (Churchill, W. Speech to the academic Youth,
  Zurich, 19.9.1946)
• Altiero SPINELLI
• The question which must be resolved first is
  the definitive abolition of the division of
  Europe into national, sovereign States.
• All problems would find easy solutions in the
  European Federation.
• MOVEMENT FOR A FREE AND UNITED EUROPE
• (Spinelli, A. (1944). For a Free and United
  Europe. A draft manifesto (Ventotene Manifesto))

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Federalism

• The integration of several national actors takes
  place as a consequence of willful political
  decisions taken by politicians and nations and
  based on common political and socio-economic
  norms and objectives. At the beginning of the
  integration process a common constitution for the
  newly integrated actor will be formulated. This
  actor usually takes the form of a federal state
  with horizontal and vertical separation of
  powers the formerly autonomous units give up
  their claim to sovereignty and submit to a common
  will.
• Distinctive feature Solutions of economic and
  social problems fill a previously established
  (institutional) framework pooling of sovereignty
  of individual actors.
• Catchword Function follows form.

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• Logics
• peace, welfare and power only via
• federalism
• creating a European State with
• state-like structures
• United States of Europe by saut
• qualitatif
• European people posses
• sovereignty
• subsidiarity clause
• Neo-Federalism step by step
• strengthening of the EP, (process
• character)

• Assumptions
• power-seeking people and
• states
• security dilemma
• anarchy as central
  
• problem
• discredited nation-state
• one European people
• division of authority
• between levels

• Institutions
• European Parliament
• representative of the people
• Legitimacy through direct elections
• Council of Ministers as second
• chamber,
• Neo-Federalism step by step
• strengthening of the EP, (process
• character)

• Strategies
• first deepening, then
• widening
• avantgarde, Core-Europe,
• Fédération dEtat-
• nations, pioneer
• Europe

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Pious hopes

• John PINDER
• ... either the federal elements in the
  institutions will be strengthened until the Union
  becomes an effective democratic polity, or it
  will fail to attract enough support from the
  citizens to enable it to flourish, and perhaps
  even to survive.
• (Pinder, J. (2001). The European Union A very
  short Introduction, Oxford)

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Functionalism - Federalism - Neofunctionalism
Functionalism
Federalism

• rapprochement of sovereign states is best
  achieved by progressive cooperation within
  specific issue areas
• because of increasing socio-economic
  interdepen-dence, problems within these
  issue-areas are more effectively dealt with in an
  international rather than national context
• driving force functional necessities
• construction of an increasingly intensifying
  network of common technical (unpolitical)
  activities and administrative tasks
• tightening of interstate relations gradually
  includes genuinely political problem/ issue areas
  (reason cooperation in some specific issue areas
  induces learning processes that enhance
  cooperation within other/ related issue areas)
• complex network of overlapping, functionally
  differentiated international and transnational
  organizations (cobweb-model of international
  relations)
• overarches, erodes, undercuts classical functions
  and spheres of competence of the state
• final result declining significance of national
  borders,
• demise/ death of nation states

• The traditional sovereign nation state causes the
  negative developments of the international system
  (? security dilemma)
• successful peacemaking/ peace stabilisation
  presupposes the limitation of the sovereign
  nation states exclusive title to power
• the adequate device to fulfill this requirement
  is the formation of a (European) Federal State by
  a conscious political decision of politicians/
  peoples involved
• For the execution of specific tasks in their own
  interest states may submit partially or
  completely to a common central authority (pooling
  of (partial) sovereignties)
• The instrument of integration is a supranational
  constitution in the regulatory framework of which
  political (and to a lesser degree socio-economic)
  integration between states takes place
• driving force political will/ political
  decisions
• The partial or complete transfer of sovereignty
  to the central authority secures the outcome of
  the integration process conflicts can be
  regulated within the framework of commonly
  accepted and hard to alter constitutional norms

I.
II.

• common characteristics
• incremental nature of the integration process
• Spillover as driving force
• final aim supersession of the nation state (yet
  disagreement on by what sort of institution it
  will be replaced)

Neofunctionalism
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Functionalism

• common characteristics
• incremental nature of the integration process
• Spillover as driving force
• final aim supersession of the nation state (yet
  disagreement on by what sort of institution it
  will be replaced)

Neofunctionalism

• stresses the role/importance of supranational
  institutions for the progress of the integration
  process
• a once started integration process is followed by
  additional/ further integrative measures
  (spillover-effect)
• driving force functional necessities
• inclusion of further policy areas hitherto not
  integrated
• transition from economic to political integration
• driving force coalition of national political
  and socio-economic elites with supra-national
  actors
• their aim advancement of common interests
• final result supranational federal political unit

explanatory problem observable coexistence of
national, intergovernmental, federal and
supranational elements as well as the
coexistence of functional necessities and
voluntary political decisions within the actual
process of European integration
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Recommended reading

• Michael ONeill (1996) The Politics of European
  Integration. A Reader. London Routledge.
• Ben Rosamond (2000) Theories of European
  Integration. Basingstoke Macmillan.
• Antje Wiener/Thomas Diez (eds.) (2009) European
  Integration Theory. 2nd. ed.. Oxford OUP.
• Hans-Jürgen Bieling/ Marika Lerch (eds.) (2006)
  Theorien der europäischen Integration. 2nd. ed.
  Wiesbaden VS Verlag.
• Anne Faber (2005) Europäische Integration und
  politik-wissenschaftliche Theoriebildung.
  Neofunktionalismus und Intergouvernementalismus
  in der Analyse. Wiesbaden VS Verlag.

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Variants of Integration Theory
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Variants of Integration Theory A quick overview
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Federalism The integration of several national
actors takes place as a consequence of wilful
political decisions taken by politicians and
nations and based on common political and
socio-economic norms and objectives. At the
beginning of the integration process a common
constitution for the newly integrated actor will
be formulated. This actor usually takes the form
of a federal state with horizontal and vertical
separation of powers the formerly autonomous
units give up their claim to sovereignty and
submit to a common will. Distinctive feature
Solutions of economic and social problems fill a
previously established (institutional) framework
pooling of sovereignty of individual actors.
Catchword Function follows form
Functionalism Emergence and growth of
international organization is a consequence of
the autonomy of industrial societies,
characterized by the progress of the forces of
production , and the internationalization of
socio-economic problem complexes, which can only
be resolved by means of inter-state or
supra-state cooperation. Thus, international
organizations can be compared to administrative/
executive unions, active in primarily technical
political issue-areas. They simultaneously
relieve states of some of their tasks and deprive
them of some of their power without incorporating
them in a superior political entity. The
internationalization of problem complexes is
governed by the logic of functional necessity
functional necessities thus produce on the
international level mechanisms of collective
problem resolution and the concomitant adequate
organisational forms. Distinctive feature
Economic and social problems produce their own
respective (framework of) solutions
international cooperation is legitimized by the
usefulness and efficiency of concrete,
issue-specific (technical) cooperation and its
outcomes. Catchword Form follows function.
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Neofunctionalism As socioeconomic problems of
highly industrialized societies, due to their
border-transgressing causes and consequences,
cannot be resolved any longer by individual state
action but require comprehensive solutions that
encompass all actors, the integration of several
actors arises out of purely functional
necessities. At the beginning of the integration
process actors formally agree (contractual
arrangements) to solve problems within technical,
functional, non-political and small sector-based
issue areas (low politics) in a technocratic and
non-ideological way. As cooperative management
and problem solving approaches prove to be
successful, they expand to other related
functional task-areas and will finally spill over
into genuinely political (high politics) issue
areas, where they also inititate a gradual
process of integration (logic of integration by
sectors supranational communitization of state
functions in a succession of neighbouring policy
areas produces quasi-automatic integration by
means of spillover effects) Distinctive feature
Political actors play a decisive role in the
process of combining the requirements of problem
solutions and adequate institutional provisions
they transfer their loyalties and benefit
expectations in an ever-intensifying manner to
the supranational level, thereby legitimizing and
stimulating the integration process.
Hegemonic Stability Theory The free-rider
problem inherent in the management of the global
economy requires a hegemonic power capable of
providing collective/ public goods. Motivated by
its own (enlightened) self-interest, the most
powerful state existing in an international
system in a given period in time creates specific
international regimes in order to defend / pursue
its self-interest throughout the system. Though
set up by a hegemonic power, these regimes
occasionally continue to exist even after the
decline of the hegemon, because nation states
assumed to be rational, egoistic
utility-maximisers develop an interest in the
regimes persistence.
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Interdependence Theory Within the context of
growing interdependence and integration, the
modernization/ industrialization/
internationalization of the exchange of
commodities and services does increase the
sensitivity of actors to developments within
other actors. Mutual interdependence and changes
in the interdependence structure entail - often
unequally distributed - costs and benefits.
Whereas sensitivity describes the costs of the
actors reaction towards changes within the
system, the term vulnerability denotes the
costliness of a substantial change within the
system structure. gt cobweb model of
international politics (John Burton)
Complex Interdependence International relations
are characterized by a complex conglomerate
system of inter- and transnational
interrelationsships between a wide range of
governmental and nongovernmental national as well
as international actors. The traditionally given
hierarchy of security issues over welfare/
socio-economic issues is replaced by variable
sets of themes and preferences depending on the
specific policy area. As national actors are
integrated into a complex network of mutual
interdependencies, the importance of the resort
to force/organized violence as an instrument of
foreign/ state policy is likely to be diminished.
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• Intergovernmentalism
• The horizontal coordination of government
  policies and the vertical coordination of
  policies of governments and supranational
  institutions characterizes e.g. the EU as a
  co-operative communal project of nation states.
  Within a common institutional framework that
  improves the conditions for cooperative action,
  nation states are striving
• for the reduction of transaction costs
• for the achievement of gains/ avoidance of losses
  from cooperation
• for the increase of the efficiency of
  intergovernmental negotiation and bargaining
  processes
• for the effectivisation of governmental
  instruments and means of action.
• Within a framework of a complex multi-layered
  institutional structure horizontal
  decision-making networks are dominating over
  hierarchically organized decision-making
  structures. They are, however, frequently
  characterized by multi-level policy interlocking
  (or even interblocking) and by possible
  suboptimal outcomes of problem solutions
  (Politikverflechtungsfalle (interlocking policy
  trap) multi-level decision networks generate
  inadequate decisions/ solutions, while
  simultaneously being unable to change the
  institutional conditions underlying their
  decisional logic).
• Instead of being conceived of as a goal, the
  transfer of sovereign power is turned into a
  calculated instrument that serves a specific
  purpose to further cooperation between states
  within a protected institutional framework, thus
  removing it from the realm of international
  anarchy and its hostile effects on cooperative
  endeavours.

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Regime Theory Factual and empirical problems
lead to the formation of informal networks of
agreements, principles, rules, norms and
decision-making procedures that enhance the
institutionalization of the political management
of conflicts and interdependence problems and
mitigate conflicts through means of (legal)
regulation and control. Thus, they contribute to
the civilization of the relations among the
actors and stabilize the predictability of the
actors decisions/ actions. Regimes support,
supplement, undercut or overarch the spheres of
competence of the traditional society of states
and integrate the cooperation of actors into a
complex multi-level system of political or
socio-economic decision-making processes that do
account for the actors regulatory interests in
each particular issue area. Within that context,
the EU could be conceived of as a relatively
effective international regime constructed for
the management of problems of economic
interdependence by means of negotiated political
coordination processes.
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Neoliberal Institutionalism Drawing on
Interdependence Theory, Neoliberal
Institutionalism identifies tendencies towards
the institutionalization and normative regulation
of conflict and cooperation. While accepting the
neorealistic image of the international system as
regulated anarchy in which a central authority is
absent, it rejects the idea that the system
structure does exclusively determine the
politics/ behaviour of states. It rather insists
on the importance of institutions, regimes,
IGOs/INGOs within the structure of the
international system and their influence on the
behaviour of various actors. Credo Institutions
matter. System and structure of international
relations constrain the behaviour of states, but
states, in turn, can exert influence on those
structures by building up institutions.
Cooperative structures are able to persist in a
multipolar system without a hegemonic power
because they enhance the actors knowledge and
information about other actors intentions their
demise or break-down would induce costs on those
no longer willing to cooperate they foster
linkages across issue/ problem areas by
negotiating package solutions, facilitate
arrangements and reduce the transaction costs for
the negotiation of international agreements they
affect the actors definition of its
self-interest and fundamental preferences. The
emergence/ extension of cooperative networks does
neither reflect a harmony of interests nor
economic interdependence, but rather indicates
the actors national self-interest in easing
processes of interstate negotiation and
collaborative action.