ABSTRACT
Theory and good social science are mutually reinforcing. For theory generates pluralism, pluralism produces choice, choice creates alternatives, alternatives formulate debate, debate encourages communication, communication increases awareness, awareness minimizes dogmatism and, in this way, there is a propensity to develop a deeper understanding of the phenomenon under scrutiny. This is a book about the theory of European integration, rather than the praxis (and assorted praxeology) of it. Reflecting on a recent paradigm shift in EU studies – ‘from policy to polity’ (see Chapter 4) and also ‘from process to product’ (see Chapter 8) – the book investigates the political ontology of the regional collectivity at different evolutionary stages, rather than the day-to-day running of its working arrangements or the results of collective regulation. In this study, as in any other essentially theoretical project on European integration, engagement in concept-building and in developing normative claims about the current state of play or about the process that might lead to an end condition are taken as promising departures. The wider methodological claim put forward is that good social science is theoretically informed. It thus follows that attempts at new theory creation, theory development and metatheory or ‘second-order theorizing’ (see Chapter 7) should be welcomed.
