Political Change in the European Community

Abstract

This article should be seen as a contribution to the new pluralistic debate on integration theory focusing on the problem of political change in integration systems. It departs from the assumption that no single integration theory can account for all aspects of European Community (EC) development. There would seem to be a considerable complementarity between individual integration theories; not only do they often study different dimensions of integration, it could be argued that they also focus on problems relating to different stages in the evolution of an integration system. Viewing the EC as a political system, the author elaborates on Lindberg and Scheingold's observations in Europe's Would-Be Polity (1970) regarding patterns of political change in the Community. The article suggests a wider set of categories of political change, distinguishing between the nature of integration dynamics (directed/undirected) and the degree of change (marginal/incremental/dramatic). A second section looks in more detail at the category of system transformation, stressing the importance of the international environment in explaining such transformations. A final section examines the extent to which the adoption of the Single European Act can be said to have constituted a system transformation.