Challenging boundaries : Moravcsik, Diez, and the limits of contemporary European Integration Theory
Date
2000
Authors
Muller, Benjamin John
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Abstract
This thesis is centred around one specific question To what extent do the works of Thomas Diez and Andrew Moravcsik challenge the boundaries of existing European integration theory? Engaging with this question necessitates some sustained discussion of both Diez's and Moravcsik's contributions to contemporary European integration theory, as well as some discussion of what the boundaries of contemporary European integration theory are, and why these boundaries need to be challenged. European integration theory has been at its core, in some way or another, concerned with "sovereignty". The decision for European states to integrate suggests, at the very least, some rearticulation of sovereignty. The literature on European integration largely poses these problems in an almost "zero-sum" mariner, where integration, or what is at times described as disintegration is characterised by the withering away or rejuvenation of the sovereign state. Through my analysis of Diez and Moravcsik, I hope to problematise this version of integration, and suggest that more complex readings of sovereignty - ergo, integration and European governance - are required if one hopes to gain something positive from the integration experience, and come to terms with the contemporary challenges of Eastern enlargement and institutional reform faced by the European integration process.