"European Integration Reconsidered: Redistribution of Authority in European Union Member States"

Bukowski, Jeanie. (1995) "European Integration Reconsidered: Redistribution of Authority in European Union Member States". In: UNSPECIFIED, Charleston, South Carolina. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

An arena in which the implications of increased subnational authority are particularly important is the European Union. In addition to the decentralization process experienced throughout Europe, the EU states also are undergoing the simultaneous process of supranational institution-building. We see increasing interest in regions and other subnational govemments and groups on the part of the EU, such as the long-standing importance placed on regional/structural policy and the recent creation of the Committee of the Regions in an advisory capacity. In turn, the emergence of subnational entities with increased political and economic power has potentially important consequences for European integration. The current paper first critiques the disparate literature that studies the transfer of governmental authority to a lower level within the nation-state. It then argues that an altemative conceptualization, "redistribution of authority", based on the institutional capacities, functional scope and resources available to various governmental and nongovernmental entities, best captures this complex phenomenon and allows us to analyze its causes and consequences. The study further proposes that as a result of this redistribution of authority, a complex policy network is emerging. The prevailing theories of integration are critiqued in terms of these theories' ability to include the complex dynamics of interaction among supranational, national and subnational levels in Europe resulting from the redistribution of authority and proliferation of decision-making centers. Finally, a preliminary research framework is provided within which propositions regarding the redistribution of authority, the resulting complex policy network, and the consequences for the economic and political development of the EU may be examined.

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