Functionalism and resource shortage: historically, how has Functionalist Theory been applied to resolve competition between political bodies and can this model be used today to address contemporary problems of scarce natural resources?

Abstract

The largest hindrance to the effective management of environmental problems has been their interstate nature and the inability of the governments affected to produce a suitably powerful international regime which can compel states to take action. Following the Second World War, David Mitrany applied Functionalist Theory to the study of interstate relations. This approach focused on the idea that the isolated nation–state was not necessarily the ideal level of organisation to solve certain problems. Instead, some competences should be ceded by central government to both sub- and suprastate actors. This concept saw realisation in the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the USA and the European Coal and Steel Community in Europe. Both the organisations were constructed in order to share natural resources between discrete political bodies. Assuming the conclusions of groups such as the Club of Rome are correct and humanity is indeed heading towards a Malthusian crisis at some point in the future, the need to equitably share resources between states is going to gradually become more and more pressing as time passes. It is therefore argued in this paper that rather than depending on the model of international regimes as they currently exist, it would be more effective to begin a process of sectoral integration between political bodies which are competing for a scarce resource. Management theory tells us that the best way to preserve change in existing organisations is to institutionalise it. By removing any claim to a scarce resource and allocating complete responsibility to a supranational institution, it is theorised that predicted future conflict between states over said resources can be reduced.