POL 5032 WEEK V

Regionalism as Theory: The Zollverein and the Origins of the European Union. The logical limits of functionalism.

Questions:

a). What are the core theoretical arguments that underpin Regionalism?

b). Can you trace the idea or notion of the European Single Market back to the German Zollverein, and if so would you argue that politically the European Union should be aiming more for a Confederation than a political federation as an end goal?

C).  How would you analyze the logical limits of functionalism?

What are the core theoretical arguments that underpin Regionalism?  Can we argue that Balassa is correct?  Is a Federation of states the correct endpoint for a supranational regional entity?

Earlier on in this blog, and in my first Scramble book, I wrote on the various theories of regionalism.  At the time I wanted to explore Mitrany, Haas, Balassa, Hettne  and Amin in order to ascertain how regions evolve.  Key to my research was, first, whether economics produced a ‘political spillover’ within a region, and second, whether regionalism was a response to globalization or a stepping stone to yet greater global economic integration. 

The research was centered on Africa, which suffered from three core problems prior to the turn of the century: (1) there was a singular lack of FDI; (2) trade was skewed in favour of developed nations; and (3) there was still a problem of small markets, essentially the legacy of colonialism.

 The solution mooted was regionalism, and a debate ensued over the merits of ‘open regionalism’ as opposed to state intervention.  In tracking President Thabo Mbeki’s ideas, I arrived at a notion of ‘developmental functionalism’ where the state took on an economic role through parastatals in order to pay side payments to labour while creating regional development.

Now in focusing on Europe and the development of the European Union, the issue turns on whether economics, through open regionalism, works at all.  Is there in fact any ‘political spillover’ from the region’s economic activity, and can we really accept the theories espoused by both Haas and Balassa.? 

Moreover, when the arguments are coupled with arguments on the Euro and Mundell’s theories of Optimal Currency Areas, the appearance of a Federal United States of Europe looks very much like a pipe dream.

In essence, does economics really trump politics? Are we being seduced by mere myth when following Haas and Balassa, or should we not turn to List for inspiration and view his discussion on nationalism and the management of the economy through the nation state as more pertinent?  My contention here is that the interaction between the economy and List’s nationalism should be explored in order to clarify its economic role within the region.  When turning to List we turn to the Zollverein to understand that politics is the point of departure and not an artificial function of ‘economic spillover’.