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    The European Union in disequilibrium: new intergovernmentalism, postfunctionalism and integration theory in the post-Maastricht period

    Hodson, Dermot and Puetter, U. (2019) The European Union in disequilibrium: new intergovernmentalism, postfunctionalism and integration theory in the post-Maastricht period. Journal of European Public Policy 26 (8), pp. 1153-1171. ISSN 1350-1763.

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    Abstract

    The crises that weigh heavily on the European Union (EU) in the 2010s have underlined the continued importance of integration theory, albeit in ways that go beyond classic debates. Postfunctionalism, in particular, has shown how European integration and its problems stand on shifting political cleavages. And yet, postfunctionalist claims that such changes would create a constraining dissensus in the EU rests uneasily with the intensification of European integration since the Maastricht Treaty was signed. This article offers a new intergovernmentalist explanation of this puzzle, which shows how mainstream governing parties have circumvented rather than being constrained by Eurosceptic challenger parties and challenger governments. The result, it contends, is not a constraining but a destructive dissensus that adds to the EU’s political disequilibrium. Understanding the persistence of this disequilibrium and its potential to unwind disruptively is a key challenge for contemporary integration theory.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: Special Issue: Grand theories of European Integration in the 21st Century
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
    Depositing User: Dermot Hodson
    Date Deposited: 22 Jan 2019 10:27
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:47
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/25912

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