Chapter 08

Multi-level governance and fusion theory of European integration

Multi-level governance attempts to describe 'complexity' and emphasise variability – the lack of constancy, unpredictability and multi-actorness of the policy-making process (see for example, Marks 1993; Marks, Hooghe and Blank 1996). In other words, the EU level policy-making processes are no longer under the monopoly of national governments, but have been allocated to different groups, sectors, regions and countries (Wallace 2000). In a nutshell, multi-level governance emphasises that the European integration process happens "at different times at different levels, with different actors being important in it" (Verdun 2002), and criticises the limits of state-centric governance and collective national governance (Hooghe and Marks 2001).

Similarly, Wolfgang Wessels (1997: 291) depicts the EU as 'a system of complex, multitiered, geographically overlapping structures of governmental and non-governmental elites' and introduces his 'fusion thesis' (Wessels 1997), which accounts for 'why the integration process has its waxing and waning'. According to Wessels's analysis, the major feature of long-term processes of structural growth and differentiation is a 'fusion', which is sometimes overshadowed by 'cyclical ups and downs'. This long-term growth trend of a 'fusion' is explained by the rational choice of national governments and administrations, as well as an increasing range and number of private and public actors for efficacy and efficiency of problem-solving.

In a related manner, H elen Wallace (2000) suggests the 'pendulum' thesis which assumes that the creation of the EC/EU and its institutions, ideas and interests have been in policy competition between diffusion and fusion. In other words, the pendulum swings between the national political arenas of member states and the transnational arena with its European and global dimensions. However, these new theories could not explain everything in European integration although they offer us a new tool to interpret European integration, the policy-making processes and policy outcomes.

Web Links

Special Issue by Journal of European Public Policy on Federalism and the EU, Vol.12, No.3
taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/(hbophc551wmalh45r5mdm145)/app/home/issue.asp?referrer=parent&backto=journal,5,46;linkingpublicationresults,1:101484,1

Special Issue by Journal of European Public Policy on Constructivism and the EU, Vol.6, No.6
taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/(hbophc551wmalh45r5mdm145)/app/home/issue.asp?referrer=parent&backto=journal,38,46;linkingpublicationresults,1:101484,1

Archive of European Integration (AEI) on Integration Theories – University of Pittsburgh
aei.pitt.edu/view/subjects/A029.html

Further Learning Resources

Wiener, Antje and Diez, Thomas (eds.) (2004), European Integration Theory, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Marks, Gary et al (1996), 'European integration from the 1980s' Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 341-78.

Hix, Simon (1994), 'The study of the European Community: the challenge to comparative politics' West European Politics, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 1-30.

Wessels, Wolfgang (1997), 'An Ever Closer Fusion? A dynamic macropolitical view on integration processes', Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 35, No.2, pp. 267-99.

Pierson, Paul (1996), 'The Path to European Integration: A Historical Institutionalist Analysis', Comparative Political Studies, Vo.29, No.2, pp.123-63.

Putnam, Robert, D. (1988), 'Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games' International Organisation, Vol.32, No.3, pp. 427-60.

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 08.

Chapter 08

Multi-level governance and fusion theory of European integration