Eurotexts and Eurothought: changing approaches to the study of the European Community

Abstract

If it is possible to measure interest in the European Community by the numbers of scholarly publications about that topic then interest today is probably greater than it has been at any time since the end of the Second World War, particularly among European political scientists. But in the absence of any reliable counts of the numbers of such publications it is my guess that the increase is not much more than marginal. Indeed, those advocating or examining the prospects of a united Europe since the war ended could not have been called shrinking violets. And coincidentally, political scientists, particularly those interested in the problem of international integration have had a special interest in the European Community. It was, after all, when in the form of the European Coal and Steel Community 9 the first major attempt at regional integration which involved not only economic, but ultimately, political commitments. Such a research horn of plenty could not fail to interest the scores of political scientists, especially in the expanding American academic environment in the 1950s, looking for new questions to answer, as well as direct routes to tenure and promotion.