ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a set of factors explaining the growing "politicization" of the security issue-area in Western Europe. It aims to assess the relative weight domestic and international variables have in the politicization of the security issue-area. Two forces concretely shape the issue-area stability: the structure of the international system and the regime of the issue-area. The stability of the international system, and therefore of each issue-area, rests on the hierarchical structure of the international system. Four main variables are traditionally indicated as characterizing the structure of the international system: the stratification of the international system; the concentration of power; the polarization of the international system; and the nature of interdependence among countries. Regime legitimacy is grounded on the national elites' perceptions of the "oughtness" of the structure of power. Regime legitimacy pertains to a deeper level and therefore is much more stable and internalized than any specific policy legitimacy.
