Integration processes within the federalist and neo-functionalist theories

Abstract

The research subject is integration processes. The aim of the research is to reveal the essence of integration processes within the federalist and neo-functionalist theories. According to the works by K.Wheare and W. Riker, the factors promoting successful integration are the feeling of military vulnerability, craving for economic benefits, similarity of political institutions, geographic neighborhood, and craving for independence from other countries. Neo-functionalists - E. Haas, P. Schmitter - defined three groups of conditions which, in their opinion, determine the success of integration processes. Integration associations and processes within these theories have the following features: federalists consider integration association as a “federal bargain” in which the stronger state offers protection and wealth to the weaker ones in exchange for their resources. The specificity of integration processes according to the neo-functionalist theory consists in the spill-over of integration from one economic sphere to another, which spills over into the third one, etc. The article also outlines the weak points of each of the theories: federalists don’t disclose the very process of integration concentrating more on its final result, while neo-functionalists, despite the fact that they’d build a model which presumably covers a sufficient number of variables to get an unbiased idea of the successfulness of an integration association, didn’t take into account external factors which are also crucial for the development of integration processes.