 2015 - 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1031-3793-01 | Theories of Integration: Why Do States Concede Part of their | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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University credit hours: 3.0
Course description
This course aims to answer the question why states are willing to concede their sovereignty and are joining binding international institutions that constrain their policies. Such institutions may, for example, require state actors to concede their national currency or their control over their borders. The challenge with regard to addressing these questions stems from the fact that sovereignty is related not only to policy making or strategy, but also to states' identity. Therefore, dealing with these questions requires going beyond the scope of positivist approaches, and some related elements are better captured through interpretative ones. The course will review the different theories that aim to explain these dynamics: how they explain the emergence and expansion of the EU, and how they explain the challenges the EU is facing, especially with regard to the EU's ability to preserve its mere existence given the crises it currently faces.