De Gaulle, Moravcsik, and The Choice for Europe: Soft Sources, Weak Evidence

Abstract

In The Choice for Europe Andrew Moravcsik develops a “commercial” interpretation of Charles de Gaulle's European policies. Moravcsik claims that his revisionist analysis succeeds because he, as opposed to almost all other students of European Community policymaking, has relied not on “soft” sources but on hard primary sources. An investigation of his claim shows that it cannot be substantiated. Both the quality of his sources and his handling of them are poor. His commercial interpretation of de Gaulle's policy is based on a serious misreading of the two sources on which his argument depends. Finally, his restatement in 2000 of his original argument a restatement intended to overcome the problem that, as his critics pointed out, he failed to produce any direct supporting evidence leads only to further problems.

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