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2 Polity attacks and policy failures: The EU polycrisis and integration theory

  • Frank Schimmelfennig
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The EU under Strain?
This chapter is in the book The EU under Strain?

Abstract

For more than a decade, the European Union has been in perpetual crisis. The ‘polycrisis’ has amounted to a fundamental threat to the EU’s core domains of post-Cold War integration. It has also turned attention to integration theories and their strengths and weaknesses in explaining integration crises. In the first section, the chapter suggests that the major integration theories make important contributions to the study of integration crises but also suffer from systematic gaps. As a remedy, I propose a functionalist synthesis of liberal intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism and an elaboration of postfunctionalism. In the second section, the chapter distinguishes two types of integration crises - policy failures and polity attacks - which differ in their origins and produce diverse crisis dynamics and outcomes. I further suggest a theoretical division of labour: policy failures are best explained by the synthetic functionalist theory, whereas polity attacks are best accounted for by the expanded postfunctionalist theory. The chapter concludes with brief and illustrative case studies of the euro, migration, and corona crises (policy failures) and the Russia, Brexit, and rule of law crises (polity attacks) in order to demonstrate the empirical plausibility of the proposed typology and theoretical synthesis.

Abstract

For more than a decade, the European Union has been in perpetual crisis. The ‘polycrisis’ has amounted to a fundamental threat to the EU’s core domains of post-Cold War integration. It has also turned attention to integration theories and their strengths and weaknesses in explaining integration crises. In the first section, the chapter suggests that the major integration theories make important contributions to the study of integration crises but also suffer from systematic gaps. As a remedy, I propose a functionalist synthesis of liberal intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism and an elaboration of postfunctionalism. In the second section, the chapter distinguishes two types of integration crises - policy failures and polity attacks - which differ in their origins and produce diverse crisis dynamics and outcomes. I further suggest a theoretical division of labour: policy failures are best explained by the synthetic functionalist theory, whereas polity attacks are best accounted for by the expanded postfunctionalist theory. The chapter concludes with brief and illustrative case studies of the euro, migration, and corona crises (policy failures) and the Russia, Brexit, and rule of law crises (polity attacks) in order to demonstrate the empirical plausibility of the proposed typology and theoretical synthesis.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Table of Contents v
  3. List of authors ix
  4. Part I: Contextualising the EU and crises
  5. 1 Introduction: The EU under strain 1
  6. 2 Polity attacks and policy failures: The EU polycrisis and integration theory 27
  7. Part II: The legal and democratic fundaments of the EU
  8. 3 Crisis-driven EU reforms in and beyond treaty limits: Is it time for a treaty change? 51
  9. 4 What happened to the idea of ‘Ever Closer Union’? Differentiation as a persistent feature of European integration 77
  10. 5 The difficulty of upholding the rule of law across the European Union: The case of Poland as an illustration of problems the European Union is facing 95
  11. 6 Representation in polycrisis: Towards a new research agenda for EU citizens 115
  12. Part III: The EU in a changing world
  13. 7 After the deluge: Europe, the European Union and crisis in the world arena 133
  14. 8 EU enlargement in times of crisis: Strategic enlargement, the conditionality principle and the future of the “Ever-Closer Union” 155
  15. 9 The EU after Brexit: EU-UK relations and the latent crisis of withdrawal 173
  16. 10 A strained partnership? A typology of tensions in the EU-US transatlantic relationship 191
  17. Part IV: European policy fields shaped by crisis
  18. 11 Consolidating the fortress Europe: Conceptualizations of solidarity in the EU Asylum System governance post-2015 211
  19. 12 EU Health: From pandemic crisis management to a European Health Union? 233
  20. 13 Leader or laggard? Diversity and minority rights in a union under strain 253
  21. 14 The slow-burning climate emergency and the European Green Deal: Prospects and pitfalls in the polycrisis era 275
  22. 15 European economic governance in times of crisis: Solidarity, responsibility, and legitimacy in EU debt mutualisation 293
  23. Index 319
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110790337-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Table of Contents v
  3. List of authors ix
  4. Part I: Contextualising the EU and crises
  5. 1 Introduction: The EU under strain 1
  6. 2 Polity attacks and policy failures: The EU polycrisis and integration theory 27
  7. Part II: The legal and democratic fundaments of the EU
  8. 3 Crisis-driven EU reforms in and beyond treaty limits: Is it time for a treaty change? 51
  9. 4 What happened to the idea of ‘Ever Closer Union’? Differentiation as a persistent feature of European integration 77
  10. 5 The difficulty of upholding the rule of law across the European Union: The case of Poland as an illustration of problems the European Union is facing 95
  11. 6 Representation in polycrisis: Towards a new research agenda for EU citizens 115
  12. Part III: The EU in a changing world
  13. 7 After the deluge: Europe, the European Union and crisis in the world arena 133
  14. 8 EU enlargement in times of crisis: Strategic enlargement, the conditionality principle and the future of the “Ever-Closer Union” 155
  15. 9 The EU after Brexit: EU-UK relations and the latent crisis of withdrawal 173
  16. 10 A strained partnership? A typology of tensions in the EU-US transatlantic relationship 191
  17. Part IV: European policy fields shaped by crisis
  18. 11 Consolidating the fortress Europe: Conceptualizations of solidarity in the EU Asylum System governance post-2015 211
  19. 12 EU Health: From pandemic crisis management to a European Health Union? 233
  20. 13 Leader or laggard? Diversity and minority rights in a union under strain 253
  21. 14 The slow-burning climate emergency and the European Green Deal: Prospects and pitfalls in the polycrisis era 275
  22. 15 European economic governance in times of crisis: Solidarity, responsibility, and legitimacy in EU debt mutualisation 293
  23. Index 319
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