Integration

Question 1

What did the Treaty of Maastrict 1992 introduce?

Answer 1

EMU
New policy areas (e.g. Justice)
Co-decision legislative procedure
Subsidiarity monitoring

Question 2

How does Haas (1958) define new-functionalism?

Answer 2

The process whereby political actors in several…national settings are persuaded to shift their loyalties…and political activities towards a new centre, where institutions possess…jurisdiction over the pre-existing national states. The end result…is a new political community

Question 3

What is the ordinary understanding of a neo-functionalism?

Answer 3

Where sectors of the economy under control of joint authority acting in collective interest

Question 4

How does Haas (1958) talk about spillover?

Answer 4

If two or more states agreed to cooperate in a particular area of activity, and created a new regional organisation to oversee that cooperation, the full benefits of integration would not be felt until there was cooperation in other, related areas of activity

Question 5

What is Lindenberg’s (1963) definition of spillover?

Answer 5

The process by which ‘a given action, related to a specific goal, creates a situation in which the original goal can be assured only by taking further actions, which in turn create a further condition and a need for more action’

Question 6

What are Nye’s (1970) conditions for integrative potential?

Answer 6

(1) economic equality and compatibility of the states involved
(2) extent to which the elite groups that controlled economic policy in the MSs thought alike and held the same values
(3) presence and extent of interest group activity (absence = integration more difficult)
(4) capacity of MSs to adapt and respond to public demands (depends on domestic stability and capacity/desire of decision-makers to respond)

Question 7

What is technical spillover?

Answer 7

Where integration in one sector makes integration in further sectors useful (e.g. Single currency to stabilise agricultural prices across EU)

Question 8

What is political spillover?

Answer 8

Joint authority gains control of sector, interest groups then shift lobbying to joint authority

Question 9

What is cultivated spillover?

Answer 9

Where acts of the Commission/CJEU/EP further integration e.g. Like in Cassis de Dijon where established mutual recognition principle for FMOG

Question 10

What are the strengths and weaknesses of neo-functionalism?

Answer 10

Strengths: explains EMU quite well
Weaknesses: MSs governments can prevent spillover as have to agree to changes of Treaty e.g. Single currency. Also does not explain empty chair crisis as momentum of integration should have continued

Question 11

Who argues that the importance of state actors is overlooked by neo-functionalism?

Answer 11

Stanley Hoffman (1966)

Question 12

What is Hoffman’s (1966) proposal of intergovernmentalism?

Answer 12

Although non-state actors play an important role in the process of integration, state governments alone had legal sovereignty, the political legitimacy that came from being elected, and the authority to decide pace of integration

Question 13

What does intergovernmentalism argue about spillover?

Answer 13

Works well to explain in areas of low politics e.g. Agriculture and trade but not in high politics e.g. Foreign and security policy

Question 14

What is Andrew Moravcsik (1993) three elements to liberal intergovernmentalism?

Answer 14

(1) integration based on bargains between MSs
(2) lowest common denominator bargaining
(3) protection of sovereignty

Question 15

What is the example that shows in liberal intergovernmentalism the preferences of gov are based mainly on domestic economic interests?

Answer 15

Single European Act agreement and macroeconomic policy amongst German, French and UK leaders but the Commission is only a marginal actor

Question 16

What are the strengths and weaknesses of liberal intergovernmentalism?

Answer 16

Strengths: emphasis on national leaders explains erratic integration (e.g. 1960s and France opposed budgetary change)
Weaknesses: does not explain increased role for Commission and EP (Parl has a veto, Commission initiates legislation)

Question 17

What is the idea of supranationalism?

Answer 17

EU is still the meeting place of the representatives of the MSs but where governments compromise state interests in the common good, and transfer authority to institutions that work in the interests of the EU as a whole

Question 18

According to Sandholtz and Zysman (1989) Maastrict was the result of…?

Answer 18

(1) domestic political context
(2) international context
(3) Commission initiatives
(4) Multinational corporations

Question 19

What are the key points of Bickerton et al.’s (2015) new intergovernmentalism argument in the post-Maastrict area?

Answer 19

(1) deliberation and consensus have become the guiding norms of day-to-day decision-making at all levels
(2) supranational institutions are not hard-wired to seek ever-closer Union
(3) where delegation occurs, governments and traditional supranational actors support the creation and empowerment of de novo bodies
(4) problems in domestic preference formation have become standalone inputs into the European integration process
(5) the differences between high and low politics have become blurred
(6) the EU is in a state of disequilibrium