ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 develops the theoretical argument of the book and consists of four sections. The first section argues that international organizations can meaningfully be understood as constitutional orders and develops a typology of international constitutional orders. I situate supranationalism within this typology, defining it as a generic institutional form defined by the ability of an IO to wield authority within the domestic jurisdiction of member-states without first securing their consent. The second section introduces the concept of constituent power, showing how it is foundational to the authority of constitutional orders. The third section uses the concept of constituent power to explain the legitimation of supranationalism both among governments and within them, identifying the different discourses of constituent power that make supranational authority possible. In the fourth section, I discuss the methods of discourse analysis, process tracing, and structured-focused comparisons the book employs to uncover how a variety of causal mechanisms intersect with a set of pre-existing conditions during particular moments to legitimate the constitutional structure of supranationalism.
