Democracy and Integration Theory in the 1990s: A Study in European Polity-Formation. JMWP No. 14.98, June 1998

Chryssouchoou, Dimitris N. (1998) Democracy and Integration Theory in the 1990s: A Study in European Polity-Formation. JMWP No. 14.98, June 1998. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

[From the Introduction]. To begin our theoretical journey, students of European 'polity-formation' are confronted with a fundamental theoretical challenge: to conceptualise the emerging patterns of interaction between the collectivity and the segments by taking into account the intersection of different theoretical approaches. The aim is to enhance our understanding of the structural properties and operational dynamics of European governance after the formal conclusion of yet another formal treaty revision. However one classifies the end-product of the 1996/97 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), the following set of questions warrant our attention. What is new about European integration in the 1990s? Is it possible to classify the emerging European polity under a comprehensive model of governance? If 'yes', then what conceptual and analytical lenses should be used? What are the limits and possibilities of an 'ever closer union' among distinct, yet highly interdependent, polities? Has a terminal state of integration become discernible? Finally, what is the dominant character of the relationship between democracy (as indirect demos control) and integration (as polity-formation)? These questions form part of a wider research agenda which revolves around a plurality of interrelated issues: the future of the European state system; the viability of democratic arrangements within and across pre-established borders; novel forms of large-scale community-building, multiple identity-holding and formal constitutional engineering; the locus of sovereignty over an ever expanding array of transnational activities; the relationship between the functional scope, territorial scale and integrative level of joint decision-making; the institutionalisation of new avenues of political communication, and the question of citizen identification with EU structures. The above list may well be extended to cover most areas of regional political life, cutting across the conventional disciplines in the study of the EU. In this article, such an ensemble of concepts and ideas is treated within the wider theoretical laboratory of European 'polity-formation': the creation of a profound locking together of distinct culturally defined and politically organised units within a larger, purposive whole.

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