ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews institutional changes in the European Community (EC) during the 1980s and their impact on other European countries, in the light of developments in the international political economy. It considers three general propositions about the nature of European Community institutions, characterizing the EC as a network whose operations are well described as "supranational" in a specific sense but that have always rested on a set of intergovernmental bargains. The chapter evaluates three competing hypotheses about EC institutional change, which focus on "spillover", pressures from a competitive world political economy, and convergence of preferences among various European polities. It offers some speculations about the European future—recognizing that in a period of rapid change, speculations can be dangerous if taken too seriously. The Single European Act was adopted and implemented while the Cold War persisted, and as its initial steps were being taken in 1984 and 1985, few observers foresaw a rapid thaw in US-Soviet relations.