Regional integration theory: understanding our past and anticipating our future

Abstract

This article is a reflection on the field of European integration studies, a product of four years of collaboration within the ‘Laguna Beach Project.’ This project, co-organized by Alec Stone Sweet and Wayne Sandholtz, will be published as Supranational Governance: The Institutionalization of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995). Three themes are explored in this article: the growing importance of institutions in the EU over time; the changing relevance of different theories, especially reflected in the increasing importance of comparative politics approaches; and an assessment of the current theoretical debate, contrasting several competing theories with the approach outlined in the book. While the EU has experienced profound changes over the last five decades, it is often unnoticed that its scholarly counterpart has changed in important ways too.

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