Introduction : beyond market regulation : analyzing the European integration of core state powers

Abstract

This introductory chapter develops an analytic framework for studying the involvement of EU institutions in key functions of state sovereignty (‘core state powers’): military security, fiscal policy, public administration. It proceeds in four steps. First, it briefly reviews the commonly accepted ‘standard model’ of the EU as a multilevel regulatory polity with strong powers to regulate economic policy externalities among member states but little power to intervene in, let alone assume, core state powers. It then challenges this model by examples of profound EU involvement in core state powers. The third step is to develop descriptive categories to systematically map and compare the pattern, extent, and dynamics of EU involvement across core state powers over time. Key distinctions concern instruments of integration (EU regulation v. EU capacity building) and modes of integration (by ‘stealth’ v. by ‘publicity’). Finally, the chapter adapts common demand-and-supply models of European integration to derive specific hypotheses on drivers and shapers of EU involvement in core state powers.