ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews the neo-functionalist concept of spillover, which was supposed to provide the dynamic for political integration. The neo-functionalist paradigm, developed from pluralist theory, seeks to achieve political integration by downplaying the distinctly political sphere. Neo-functionalist theorists set for themselves a task of historic dimensions: to discover a method of regional political integration which would allow a committed elite of pro-integrationists to bring about the transfer of individual political loyalties to a new regional center while bypassing and not awakening "the sleeping lion of nationalism”. A neo-functionalist might argue that the more the foreign ministers interact the more they become used to it, and this generates spillovers in the realm of foreign policy making. A power vacuum exists at the center of European Community politics, and it is the lack of democratic control of policy decisions which makes it easy for political parties to resist integration.