ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the principal intellectual tools employed by integration theorists to examine the at that time nascent structures of the Community system. Their investigation was informed by a process-driven understanding of the nature of integration. Here, the usefulness of functionalist and neofunctionalist theory becomes apparent. Equally crucial, however, is to evaluate the contribution of federalist theory to an alternative view of integration that placed the emphasis on the end product of the process – a formal constitutional settlement. Transactionalism is also of importance to this first wave of theorizing, for it yielded valuable insights into the process of international community-building. Notwithstanding their particular concerns with description, explanation and prediction, these theories have added to the range of insightful and innovative theorizing about international integration, while setting the scene for subsequent discourses on Europe.
