Processes of European (Dis)Integration in Context of New Medievalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Spalińska
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
European Studies ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Theoretical Apparatus ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Qualitative Changes

What is the source of the European Union’s crisis? Are disintegrating tendencies so serious? How the scope and content of member states’ sovereignty has changed within the years of integration process? The paper puts out a thesis that the answer to these questions can be found in the concept of new medievalism. This concept allows us to look at the EU from the perspective of historiosophy and civilization studies as well as globalization processes and qualitative changes in international politics. More broadly, this concept concerns the entire West, regarding social, political and economic changes which affect the position of western civilization in terms of its global domination. The “New Middle Ages” (another name for “new medievalism” in civilization studies) also refers to the European integration theory, providing a fresh look at the European history (this concept strongly refers to history) and interpretation of the presence at once. In the field of European Studies known is model of Europe as neo-medieval Empire, which provides the theoretical apparatus for research on changes of politics and power in Europe. The concept of new medievalism also investigates the risks of disintegration – that’s why it helps to understand the possible consequences of EU’s breakup. The aim of the paper is to present the interpretations of new medievalism, regarding the causes and possible outcomes of EU’s disintegration.

Regional Integration Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Schimmelfennig
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Organizational Scope ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Eu

Regional integration theory seeks to explain the establishment and development of regional international organizations. Key questions are why and under which conditions states decide to transfer political authority to regional organizations; how regional organizations expand their tasks, competencies, and members; and what impact they have on states and societies in their regions. Whereas regional integration theory started with a broad comparative regional and organizational scope in the 1950s and 1960s, it has since focused on European integration and the European Union. The main (families of) theories explaining the development of European integration—rather than decision making and policy making in the EU—are intergovernmentalism, neofunctionalism, and postfunctionalism. The key debates in regional integration theory have taken place between variants of intergovernmentalist and neofunctionalist integration theory. Intergovernmentalism assumes national governments to be the key actors in regional integration. Governments use regional integration to maximize their national security and economic interests in the context of regional interdependence. Integration outcomes result from intergovernmental bargaining and reflect the regional preference and power constellations. Governments delegate authority to regional organizations to secure their bargaining outcomes but remain in control of regional organizations and the integration process. By contrast, neofunctionalism disputes that governments are able to control the integration process. Transnational corporations and interest groups as well as supranational actors are empowered by the integration process and shape it in their own interest. In addition, integration creates a variety of “spillovers” and path-dependencies that push integration beyond the intergovernmental bargain. More recently, postfunctionalism has enriched and challenged the theoretical debate on regional integration. In contrast to neofunctionalism, postfunctionalism assumes a backlash mechanism of integration. As regional integration progresses and undermines national sovereignty and community, it creates economic and cultural losers who are mobilized by integration-skeptic parties. Identity-based and populist mass politicization constrains regional integration and may even cause disintegration. Regional integration theories have closely followed and adapted themselves to the development of European integration. They cover the establishment and progress of supranational policies and institutions but also the recent crisis of the EU. An exemplary review of their explanations of major development in European integration shows that they are more complementary than competing.

scholarly journals Current Challenges of European Integration - 12th Network Europe Conference, 9 – 10 November 2020

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
André S. Berne ◽  
Jelena Ceranic Perisic ◽  
Viorel Cibotaru ◽  
Alex de Ruyter ◽  
Ivana Kunda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
European Integration ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Majority Vote ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Asylum Policy ◽  
Massive Influx ◽  
The Common ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Eu

Crises are not a new phenomenon in the context of European integration. Additional integration steps could often only be achieved under the pressure of crises.  At present, however, the EU is characterised by multiple crises, so that the integration process as a whole is sometimes being questioned. In 2015, the crisis in the eurozone had escalated to such an extent that for the first time a member state was threatened to leave the eurozone. Furthermore, the massive influx of refugees into the EU has revealed the shortcomings of the Schengen area and the common asylum policy. Finally, with the majority vote of the British in the referendum of 23 June 2016 in favour of the Brexit, the withdrawal of a member state became a reality for the first time. Even in the words of the European Commission, the EU has reached a crossroads. Against this background, the twelfth Network Europe conference included talks on the numerous challenges and future integration scenarios in Europe. 

The Party System: Structure, Policy, and Europeanization

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oskar Niedermayer
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Party System ◽  
National Level ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
System Properties ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Eu

The German party system has changed since the 1980s. The relatively stable ‘two-and-a-half party’ system of the 1960s and 1970s has become a fluid five-party system. This development can generally be attributed to changes on the demand and supply sides of party competition and to the changing institutional framework. The European integration process is part of this institutional framework and this chapter deals with the question of whether it has influenced the development of the party system at the national level. To systematically analyse the possible impact, eight party-system properties are distinguished: format, fragmentation, asymmetry, volatility, polarization, legitimacy, segmentation, and coalition stability. The analysis shows that one cannot speak of a Europeanization of the German party system in the sense of a considerable impact of the European integration process on its development. Up to now, the inclusion of Germany in the systemic context of the EU has not led to noticeable changes of party-system properties. On the demand side of party competition, this is due to the fact that the EU issue does not influence the citizens' electoral decisions. On the supply side, the lack of Europeanization can be explained mainly by the traditional, interest-based pro-European élite consensus, the low potential for political mobilization around European integration, and the marginal role of ethnocentrist–authoritarian parties.

Show the money first! Recent public attitudes towards the EU in Italy

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolò Conti ◽  
Vincenzo Memoli
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
The Public ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Italian Context ◽  
The Eu

In the recent past, attitudes towards the EU have become problematic in many member states. Even those countries that traditionally were more optimistic have actually experienced important declines in their popular backing of the European integration process. We examine the public attitudes towards the EU that have recently emerged in Italy, a country where support for EU membership has declined substantially. Making use of recent data and novel research techniques, the article sheds light on the explanatory power of different theoretical perspectives to explain these attitudes. Utilitarianism has emerged as the key explanatory factor, whereas other theories appear much less relevant in the Italian context.

Germany, Europe, and the Politics of Constraint

2003 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Member States ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
European Public ◽  
German Model ◽  
Shaping Power ◽  
The Eu

The process of European integration is marked both by continued deepening and widening, and by growing evidence of domestic disquiet and dissent. Against this background, this book examines three key themes: the challenge to the power of member states – as subjects of European integration – to determine the course of the integrationist project and to shape European public policies; the constraints in the domestic political arena experienced by member states as objects of European integration; and the contestation over both the ‘constitutive politics of the EU’ and specific policy choices. These three themes – power, constraint, and contestation – and their interdependence are explored with specific reference to Germany. The main findings call for a revision of the ‘conventional wisdom’ about Germany's Europeanization experience. First, while Germany continues to engage intensively in all aspects of the integration process, its power to ‘upload’ – ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, ‘deliberate’ or ‘unintentional’, ‘institutional’ or ‘ideational’ – appears in decline. Germany's capacity to ‘shape its regional milieu’ is challenged by both changes in the integration process and the ever-more-apparent weaknesses of the ‘German model’. The traditional regional core milieu is shrinking in size and importance in an enlarging Europe, and Germany's milieu-shaping power is being challenged. Second, the coincidence of enabling and constraining effects is being progressively replaced by a discourse that notes unwelcome constrictions associated with EU membership.

scholarly journals European Integration: One Electoral Promise Not Taken

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Ilda Rusi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Political Class ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way

The process of European Union membership is a national objective, in view of the democratization and transformation of the Albanian society, in accordance with the values and principles of the United Europe. This sentence is taken from the Official Site of the Prime Minister of Albania. This message but expressed in other words seems to be there standing since 1992, when in Albania for the first time was articulated the desire for national integration of the country. After more than twenty years, the question that concerns me mostly is that why my country is not part of the big European family? What happened in these twenty-two years to prevent this process or to accelerate it? The first thing that comes to my mind after the last rejection candidate status on December, last year, is that this is a promise that none of the Albanian government has not yet managed to achieve. On my opinion, this process is strictly associated with the willing of all determinant political actors to collaborate and to manifest democratic political culture through dialogue. European integration is a slogan used in every political campaign, as a key element of the political agenda all political parties but in. It helps a lot during the electoral campaign but unfortunately we are still waiting for. Thus, I think that the integration process is not related only to the Albanian desire for participating in the EU, but mostly to the political class attitude. It is true that every time that the government does not achieve the candidate status, the political parties to blame each other for retarding the integration process. Even though, different scholars emphasize the role of EU in the process of integration, I believe that the country's democratization is a process strongly related to the political elite performance and the way they manifest politics. Albanian political class must admit that the real problem in this process is the way that it makes politics and how it makes political decision. In this article, I argue that the European integration is a process which can be successful only if all political parties in Albania understand that this is an obligation that they have with Albanian citizens and that cannot be realized if all of them are not committed to. This ambitious goal can be achieved only when the EU priority reforms are going to be established and in Albania there are going to operate functional and free institutions based on meritocracy and democratic system of operation far away from politics.

Kryzysy w procesie integracji europejskiej i sposoby ich przezwyciężania –wprowadzenie do problematyki badań

2014 ◽  
pp. 8-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstanty A. Wojtaszczyk ◽  
Jadwiga Nadolska ◽  
Jarosław F. Czub
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research Project ◽  
Legitimacy Crisis ◽  
The Eu

The article presents the assumptions of the interdisciplinary research project, whose object of analysis are crises in the European integration process. The project distinguishes 12 planes of analysis of the crises, revealing their different aspects (crises in the integration process from a theoretical perspective, crises in the process of European integration from a historical perspective, axiological crisis, crisis of legitimacy, crisis of the model of democracy in Europe, crisis of the modernisation of the EU, financial and economic crisis, social crisis, structural crisis, crisis of communication, Poland and the crises in the EU, EU in the international arena during crisis). The article discusses the objectives and research hypothesis, significance of the project and the expected results of the project. For each module of the project, theories explaining the origin, nature, consequences and ways of overcoming the crisis phenomena were distinguished and the research methods by which research goals are planned to be achieved were specified.

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