How federal? The organizational dimension of integration in the EU (and elsewhere)

Abstract

To figure out what kind of polity the EU is developing into, contending approaches to European integration apply quite different criteria. This article argues that the new institutional perspective could be strengthened considerably by specifying the organizational principles embodied in a given institutional structure. If the task is to integrate sub-territories, a highly integrated system is, in organizational terms, a system in which non-territorial organizational components have taken precedence over territorial ones at the centre. Thus, sub-territories as such are only marginally reflected in the organizational set-up at the centre. This organizational conceptualization provides a frame of reference within which reform efforts and actual changes in the EU over time are interpreted. By examining the behavioural consequences of different organizing principles, it becomes relatively clear that the extent to which decision-makers might be resocialized at the EU level is highly contingent upon an institution's organizational characteristics.

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