IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v56y2018i7p1631-1647.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Liberal Intergovernmentalism, Illiberalism and the Potential Superpower of the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Sophie Meunier
  • Milada Anna Vachudova

Abstract

Andrew Moravcsik has long argued that the EU is the world's second superpower, albeit a quiet and overlooked one. This article explores how the EU behaves as a global power, and how the illiberal turn may diminish it. We present Moravcsik's four core claims about the EU as the second superpower using the lens of Liberal Intergovernmentalism. We argue that the EU is more a potential than an actual superpower because its considerable hard and soft resources are not always converted into global influence. We focus on two challenges to this power conversion, which we illustrate in the areas of trade and enlargement: first, the uneven transfer of competences to the EU level and, second, the presence of illiberal regimes in the EU, which makes it more difficult to agree on common policies and tools anchored in democratic values.

Suggested Citation

  • Sophie Meunier & Milada Anna Vachudova, 2018. "Liberal Intergovernmentalism, Illiberalism and the Potential Superpower of the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(7), pages 1631-1647, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:56:y:2018:i:7:p:1631-1647
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12793
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12793
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.12793?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sebastian Santander & Antonios Vlassis, 2021. "The EU in Search of Autonomy in the Era of Chinese Expansionism and COVID‐19 Pandemic," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(1), pages 149-156, February.
    2. Adhiambo Lucy Felister & Dr. Francis Xavier Ichani, 2022. "Compulsory Adjudication of International Court of Justice and Pacific Settlement of Kenya-Somalia Maritime Dispute," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 6(5), pages 563-573, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:56:y:2018:i:7:p:1631-1647. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.