Theories of European Integration and Europeanization

Abstract

Many different theories touch upon the role of departments as mediators (or ‘fitters’) of European integration and Europeanization. This chapter examines two of them in some detail: state-centric and process-based. On closer inspection, both have a lot to say about ‘states’, inte-gration and Europeanization, but they are relatively silent on the precise role played by individual departments. Indeed, one approach, the state-centric, subsumes departments into ‘the state’ and leaves it at that. On this view, a departmental perspective offers little because departments per se do not matter. Process-based theories, on the other hand, argue that the institutional context of political action and historical processes matter (i.e., when and where decisions are taken in the EU, and which parts of the state take them, significantly affects policy outcomes). This chapter examines how the two approaches theorize: (1) the origins and articulation of ‘state’ preferences; (2) the role of departments as either facilitators or opponents of integration Europeanization; (3) what motivates states/departments to pool national sovereignty during the integration process; (4) the ability of states/departments to manage the domestic impacts of the integration (i.e., Europeanization) that they have knowingly or mistakenly sanctioned.