ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a history of the negotiations that led to the approval of the Single European Act (SEA) by the European Council in February 1986, formulates and evaluates two stylized explanations for their unexpected success, and relates the findings to theories of international cooperation. None of the three supranational variables—European institutional momentum, transnational business interest group activity, and international political leadership—seems to account for the timing, content, and process of negotiating the SEA. The negotiating history of the SEA, however, suggests that three decades later the factors encouraging a greater commitment to European unity are essentially the same: the convergence of national interests, the pro-European idealism of heads of government, and the decisive role of the large member states. Neofunctionalism remains the sole attempt to fashion a coherent and comprehensive theory of European integration. The standing of neofunctionalist theory among political scientists is a lagged function of the standing of the EC in the eyes of Europeans.
