The Path to European Integration: A Historical Institutionalist Analysis

Abstract

Observers of the European Community have criticized “intergovernmentalist” accounts for exaggerating the extent of member-state control over European integration. This article grounds these criticisms in a historical institutionalist analysis, stressing the need to study European integration as a process that unfolds over time. Losses of control result not only from the autonomous actions of supranational organizations, but from member-state preoccupation with short-term concerns, the ubiquity of unintended consequences, and the instability of member-state policy preferences. Once gaps in control emerge, change-resistant decision rules and sunk costs associated with societal adaptations make it difficult for member states to reassert their authority. Brief examination of the evolution of EC social policy suggests the limitations of treating the EC as an instrument facilitating collective action among sovereign states. Rather, integration should be viewed as a path-dependent process producing a fragmented but discernible multitiered European polity.