Neofunctionalism: A Case of Mistaken Identity

Groom, A. J. R.

doi:10.1177/003231877803000102

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The European Economic Community's (EEC) territorial delineation and exclusivity were the very features associated with regional integration which Mitrany opposed as un ‐functional. Theoretically, the functional approach was stripped of its primary concern with international order and security after it had been reformulated by Ernst Haas into a regional integration theory (Haas, ; Groom, ). Haas' narrative has become dominant to the extent that functionalism is no longer associated with the empirical‐normative aspects of building international order and security.…”

Section: Embedding the Narratives In Early Integration Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Wider Europe, Greater Europe? David Mitrany on European Security Order

Zwolski

2016

J of Common Market Studies

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How should the structure of European security be reorganized following the conflict in Ukraine? Some respond that the European Union should not bend to Russia's acts of aggression. Others blame the allegedly exclusionary and expansive nature of the Euro-Atlantic organizations for the conflict. This paper embeds these competing narratives in the functional approach of David Mitrany, specifically in his two distinctive forms of regional integration, one exclusive and one inclusive. At the same time, however, the paper cautions against drawing simplified conclusions based on the parallels between Mitrany's ideal types of regional integration and contemporary arguments about the place of Russia in European security governance. Indeed, a more inclusive approach to Russia can potentially be beneficial for European security order, but there are more problems with this vision than simply the short-sightedness of western institutions. Unfortunately, Mitrany's functional approach does not offer immediate solutions to these problems.

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Section: Embedding the Narratives In Early Integration Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Wider Europe, Greater Europe? David Mitrany on European Security Order

Zwolski

2016

J of Common Market Studies

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“…Political spillover is also promoted by the complex system of engrenage , or actor socialization, which has taken place between national and EU bureaucracies, and which is difficult for national governments to control (Groom, 1994, pp. 4–6).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Application of Neofunctionalism to the Enlargement Process: The Case of Turkey

MacMillan

2009

J of Common Market Studies

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This article examines Turkey's EU accession process from a neofunctionalist viewpoint in an attempt to understand why it has proceeded so far despite considerable opposition from some of the Member States. It argues that, although neofunctionalist spillover can account for this, the eventual outcome is still far from certain. Copyright (c) 2009 The Author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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“…The new approach built on the behavioral revolution in political science, which took place in the United States after the Second World War (Groom [1978]; Rosamond [2000]). According to this school, there are certain uniformities in human behavior that can be verified by emprical tests.…”

Section: Ontology Of Neofunctionalism: the Formation Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

Eurozone Crisis Management in Neofunctionalist Approach

Kollárik¹

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The development trajectory of the European Union (EU) has always been a key question in the history of the integration. The significance of this issue became even more topical after the so-called Great Recession of 2008-2009, which further exacerbated economic, social and political problems of the EU. The negative impacts were most evident in the Eurozone, since the sovereign debt crisis jeopardized the entire Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The crises made it clear that the EMU had been malfunctioning due to its incompleteness. Recognizing these failures and shortcomings, member states decided to launch reforms in order to strengthen the structure of European Economic Governance (EEG). However, the issue of sovereignty and economic nationalism (protectionism) came again to the forefront of public debates, which made it difficult to improve the functioning of the EMU. The story is very important from theoretical perspective as well, since various theories and approaches provide different narratives and frameworks to interpret the events. The dissertation takes neofunctionalism as a theoretical framework in explaining the Eurozone crisis management. In relation to this, the major question of the thesis is whether the crisis management can be adequately explained by the methodological toolkit of the theory. The dissertation contributes to the existing scholarly literature in three different ways. First, neofunctionalism (and integration theory in general) is an extremely underresearched area in Hungary. Accordingly, works on the European Union that study the integration in neofunctionalist approach, cannot be found in the Hungarian literature. Primarily, the thesis, which interprets neofunctionalism as a separate research program, intends to fill this gap, even if the dissertation is written in English. Chapter 2 provides an exhaustive review and systematization of the Neofunctionalist Research Program (NRP), which is also a novelty in the international literature. Second, relating to the previous point, the other novelty of the dissertation is our own neofunctionalist model that introduces a new conceptual and methodological framework. The model synthetizes previous versions of neofunctionalism, and other relating approaches. The objective of this modified (complex) framework is to provide an adequate analytical framework with which we can understand and describe long-run development (evolution) of the EU and other regional integrations. Finally, the thesis extends the investigation period of the theory, and examines the explanatory power of neofunctionalism in the post-crisis period (in the uncertainty phase). Chapter 3 introduces the anatomy of the sovereign debt crisis while focusing on institutional incompleteness of the EMU. The chapter also analyzes and summarizes the reforms of the EEG and concludes that the strengthening of economic and fiscal cooperation may be best explained by recent approaches such as New Intergovernmentalism and New Supranationalism. At the same time, it has to be noted that new elements/mechanism (or some of them) might be a springboard towards a deeper integration in the future. Finally, Chapter 4 analyzes two exploratory case studies of the post-crisis period, the European Banking Union (EBU) and the European Fiscal union (EFU). The analysis is based on the modified neofunctionalist model. The results are ambivalent. In the case of EBU, both spillover triggers and vertical institutional outcomes can be identified, which proves the existence of spillover. However, in spite of strong functional, (EU-level) political and institutional triggers, the implementation process of the EFU became standstill. In sum, we conclude that neofunctionalism is still relevant in explaining long-run developments of the European integration.

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Neofunctionalism: A Case of Mistaken Identity

Cited by 12 publications

References 2 publications

Wider Europe, Greater Europe? David Mitrany on European Security Order

Wider Europe, Greater Europe? David Mitrany on European Security Order

The Application of Neofunctionalism to the Enlargement Process: The Case of Turkey

Eurozone Crisis Management in Neofunctionalist Approach

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