Oldal 35 [35]
Integration and disintegration
Tamás Dezső Ziegler!
European integration has been a well-researched process in European studies,
with several competing theoretical schools reflecting on the intense cooperation
and interdependence among countries in the European continent. On the
other hand, researching European disintegration is a relatively underdeveloped
new area, with only a handful of scholars dealing with this topic altogether.
This chapter aims to give an overview of these two fields, and also to raise
awareness about some of the most important challenges to integration in Europe.
Furthermore, it offers a more complex interpretation of European integration
and disintegration, highlighting that these two can both happen at the same
time in parallel within the same political system, such as the European Union.
Keywords: integration, disintegration, divergence, convergence, regional
cooperation
INTRODUCTION:
INTEGRATING WHAT, HOW, AND WHAT FOR?
The integration of European countries has been one of the most researched,
documented, and debated subjects in European studies. This topic is also
related to the question of whether a European demos (a European people)
exists, or could exist in the future (Weiler 1995). Regarding integration,
several schools compete with each other and give different explanations for
this phenomenon. However, unlike concerning the methods and techniques
of integration, much less is written about what we understand by integration.
Most of the articles and books published do not invest in explaining what
they mean by integration, and which aspects of integration they wish to
analyse. To give an example, legal integration is not the same as political or
economic integration. Consequently, in order to give the reader a relatively
solid background about this process, we need to start with explaining three
things: a) what the different forms of integration(s) are; b) what the theoretical
1
The author thanks Thomas Buijnink and Julian Romero for their help in creating the final
format of this chapter.