Межгосударственная интеграция в рамках Европейского союза: некоторые вопросы теории

Abstract

The article is devoted to close examination of various approaches to theorizing about European integration. The study is organized along two perspectives: one focusing on the evolution of the phenomena associated with the European Community itself and of the related theoretical endeavours and the other focusing on a critical evaluation of theorizing on European integration. The absence of an "integrated" model, representing the relations tying the European integrative system to the national subsystems, on the one hand, and to the global international system, on the other, has constituted a major limitation on theoretical approaches to European integration. Meanwhile, the regional integrating systems play an important role in the functioning of, and in changes in the international system. Therefore, an exact definition of the place of regional systems (in particular, of the European system) in the network of interactions of the international system is yet to be developed. It is quite evident by now that European integration is a complex human endeavour that has exercised the imagination and critical capacities of scholars in a large number of academic disciplines. The article presents evaluations of some of the most important literature found in the four disciplines that have given the greatest attention to European integration: political science (federalism, functionalism, neo-functionalism, concept of community security), sociology, economics and law. The author demonstrates that there are distinctive features in each discipline's treatment of the subject matter but there are also numerous linkages across disciplinary borders.