ABSTRACT
At a time when neofunctionalism was losing its original appeal, with Haas critically refining his earlier formulations on the automaticity of the spillover effect, a sense of renewed theoretical excitement was set in train, this time focusing more on international cooperation than on regional integration per se; confederalism, regime theory, the interdependence school and the concordance systems approach were the most prominent. Even though confederalism is not normally classified as an integration theory, it offers a general framework for understanding the statecentric properties of the regional process and the relationship between the Community and the state as a limited but meaningful partnership that safeguards national autonomy through a consensual form of governance. Like federalism, the confederal phase of integration during the 1970s and early 1980s reflected the search for ‘unity in diversity’. Unlike federalism, however, its focus was not on the possibilities but rather on the limits of regional constitution-making or community-building. Regime theory brings into the debate the question of whether institutions matter in processes of internationalized governance. The proliferation of extra-treaty arrangements since the early 1970s, alongside the preferred pattern of policy interaction for greater coordination but not harmonization, is a case in point. The interdependence school portrays a more dynamic system of increased interconnectedness, which sets the pace and to a certain extent the limits of integration. It reflected the mood of the deteriorating international economic environment at the time and the need for pragmatic policy responses to structural changes in the political economy of Western Europe and the changing conditions of market forces more generally. The logic of interdependence became distinct from regional integration, in that the management of complex relations among states and societies does not necessitate the setting up of supranational agencies. Finally, the concordance systems approach was developed by Puchala in an attempt to throw light on the ‘real’ nature of contemporary international integration. His aim was to transcend the biases of the conventional integration theories and to assess the prospects for a genuine consensus not only among states but, crucially, between states and peoples.
