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Copyright by Mark Spencer Stephens 2004 The Dissertation Committee for Mark Spencer Stephens Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: A Supranational Elite Theory of Neofunctionalist European Integration Committee: John Higley, Supervisor Zoltan Barany Cynthia Buckley Gary Freeman H.W. Perry A Supranational Elite Theory of Neofunctionalist European Integration by Mark Spencer Stephens, B.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2004 For my parents, Robert and Sandra Stephens Better folks than anyone deserves Acknowledgements I sincerely thank all who assisted me in this project. Your patience and support were critical to this venture’s completion. In particular, Professor Higley must be thanked for taking the time out of his immensely busy schedule to edit my drafts so helpfully. I apologize for any hand cramps he may have suffered. My good friends, Cathy, MaryJane, and the Schwengs, have helped to maintain my determination to finish. The odysseys of JW and AD have also inspired me to persevere. I also thank the Department of French and Italian for allowing me to audit some courses. Above all, my parents must receive special thanks. Without their generous assistance, this project would have been impossible. v A Supranational Elite Theory of Neofunctionalist European Integration Publication No._____________ Mark Spencer Stephens, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2004 Supervisor: John Higley Abstract: The national states of Europe are eliminating themselves. Not only is this development of historic import, it flies in the face of numerous theories of political science. Most notably, the school of international relations scholarship known as realism is ill-equipped to explain supranational integration since it holds self-preservation to be the primary concern of all states. Theories of neoliberal institutionalism and intergovernmentalism also purport to illuminate the process of Europe’s political unification, but fall short due to their emphasis on state-based or economic phenomena. However, by combining the insights of elite and neofunctionalist approaches, considerable explanatory and predictive power can be lent to an analysis of the European Union. This dissertation will employ the theoretical syncretism of “supranational elite neofunctionalism” to examine the process of European integration and demonstrate that it is destined to culminate in the establishment of a United States of Europe. vi Table of Contents Chapter 1: Framework .............................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Conception and Genesis of the European Elite....................................40 Chapter 3: Gestation and Parturition of the European Elite ..................................67 Chapter 4: The Nationalist Counterattack............................................................105 Chapter 5: Supranational Success........................................................................145 Chapter 6: The Thatcher Years............................................................................191 Chapter 7: The Maastricht Treaty........................................................................218 Chapter 8: Conclusions and Predictions ..............................................................250 Appendix A: Leading Participants in the Council of Europe ..............................282 Appendix B: Summary of the Middlemas Archive Interviews ...........................284 Glossary for Appendix B .....................................................................................301 Bibliography ........................................................................................................303 Vita ....................................................................................................................319 vii A Supranational Elite Theory of Neofunctionalist European Integration Chapter One: Framework European integration is the subject of this dissertation. My dependent variable is European integration itself; my independent variable is the formation and operation of a European supranationalist elite. I investigate the momentum propelling the political, social, and economic unification of Europe since WWII and argue that it has been provided by members of a Europe-wide elite network of supranationalists. While this claim must be qualified regarding some quotidian aspects of European integration, the watershed events in Europe’s unification have come exclusively “from above”; the general European public has never propelled integration and has often been apathetic or antagonistic towards it. The key analytic categories in this dissertation are as follows: a European elite that is comprised of particularly influential persons from the national states of Europe ( national elite segments ) who have undergone a process of consensual unification; a supranationalist elite which is that subset of the European elite that holds a higher preference value for European integration than for the unrestricted sovereignty of Europe's national states. This supranationalist faction of the European elite shares a common political purpose, which is the progressive integration of the national states of Europe into a full -fledged federal state, a “ United States of Europe.” For stylistic variety, the adjectives “supranationalist,” “federalist” and “integrationist” will be used interchangeably when referring to this elite faction. The primary political opponents of these federalists, the nationalist faction of the European elite, subscribe to a political vision diametrically oppose d to that of the supranationalists, namely the maintenance of national sovereignty. S upranational integration, the object over which these two factions quarrel, will be understood as a permutation of Charles Pentland’s definition: “A process whereby groups of people, organized initially into two or more 1 nation-states, come to constitute a political whole which can in some sense be described as a community,” thereby subjugating those states to a superior supranational center. 1 Other key terms will de defin ed as they occur To explain the process and outcomes of the integration process, I will employ aspects of elite theory and neofunctionalist international relations theory to pursue the hypotheses that (1) during the last fifty years European integration has resulted solely from the deliberate efforts of supranationalist elements within a progressively more unified European elite; (2) these supranationalists have been most successful when acting in accordance with the prescriptions of neofunctionalist theory; and (3) this elite shows every sign of eventually being successful in its attempt to create a United States of Europe (USE). The relevant elite and neofunctionalist theories that spawn these hypotheses will be elaborated in separate sections below. A USE, which is the telos of the supranational agenda, will be understood as a single federal government, stretching eventually from Ireland to the borders of Russia, and possessing all the political, economic, and social characteristics of a modern state , namely: 1 – Political powers: (1) Legislative power – authority of legislative promulgation and revision over an almost unlimited scope of activity (2) Executive power – authority of statutory enforcement and diplomacy, namely a federal police force, diplomatic corps and military force, empowered to enforce executive commands and wage war (3) Judicial power – authority of final legal interpretation and universal enforcement of judicial edicts and warrants 2 – Control of the economy: (1) Fiscal power – Authorization of government spending and taxation; (2) Monetary power – Authority to operate a European central bank that issues a single Europe-wide currency and exercises discretion over money supply and 1Pentland, Charles, (1973) International Theory and European Integration, (London: Faber and Faber), p.21; my contribution follows the passage in quotation marks 2 interest rates, as well as the inflation and unemploymen t targets justifying those monetary targets. 3 – Social functions: (1) Authority to regulate workers’ conditions, such as employment protection and retraining (to avoid social dumping) (2) Authority to regulate other quality of life issues such as equality and social justice (a nebulous sphere of competence, addressed in Chapters Seven and Eight). It is important to note that these powers will be exercised across all the national frontiers of Europe, with final authority to promulgate, execute, and interpret them residing with the supranational center. This chapter will provide an overview of ‘generic’ elite theory, as elucidated by previous authors, followed by a few refinements to their theoretical propositions. Then, a more specific application of these ‘generic’ concepts will be applied, grosso modo, to recent European history. Next, neofunctionalist integration theory will be examined, followed by an analysis of how elite theory can be profitably synthesized with the neofunctionalist approach. T he chapter will then turn to a survey of some relevant publications and their theoretical implications. It will conclude with the dissertation’s research program. 1.1- Elite- Centric Theories of Politics Holding that all political systems are create d and driven by elites,