Re-assessing European Integration Theory

Chapter 1 identified abstract notions of human and international relations and argued that European integration theory and practice could be based on philosophical perspectives identified by Kant and Hegel. That there was a Hobbesian perspective of Hegelian thought in terms of realism, which dialectically moves towards a Kantian perspective, Hegelian ‘recognition’ and an objective as well as subjective consciousness in the formation of a ‘civil constitution’. Civil constitution and recognition provide a philosophical framework, which can be used to explain motives and rationales for European integration. Cause and effect or dependent and independent variables may be posited but are impossible to verify, prediction is asserted in some parts of the philosophies, for example, the guiding hand of history, but are difficult to test from a positivist perspective. Indeed, it may be argued that the best these frameworks can achieve is to provide general explanations that point in the direction of grand theories of European integration and international relations. This chapter deals with these theories in more detail and identifies the extent to which functionalist and realist perspectives may be considered as explanatory frameworks or predictive tools.