Constructivism and Role-Taking An Analysis of the Single European Act
(2008)Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- By conceiving identity as endogenously defined and construing other central political concepts according to this assumption, constructivism has proven apt to understand and explain phenomena that eariler were hard to grasp. Constructivist ideas have here been used in order to analyze the events surrounding the Single European Act as a contrast to the more conventional rationalist approach used by Liberal Intergovernmentalism. As a result of this analysis, proposals for developments of the constructivist framework are put forward, the most important one being a specification of the conditions under which shaping or reshaping of identity occurs.
The empirical material is entirely made up of secondary sources such as books and articles.... (More) - By conceiving identity as endogenously defined and construing other central political concepts according to this assumption, constructivism has proven apt to understand and explain phenomena that eariler were hard to grasp. Constructivist ideas have here been used in order to analyze the events surrounding the Single European Act as a contrast to the more conventional rationalist approach used by Liberal Intergovernmentalism. As a result of this analysis, proposals for developments of the constructivist framework are put forward, the most important one being a specification of the conditions under which shaping or reshaping of identity occurs.
The empirical material is entirely made up of secondary sources such as books and articles. Since the focus of this paper is on the theoretical conflict between rationalist and constructivist analyses of European integration, the empirical aspect has an illustrative purpose rather than presenting further material. The theoretical part of the paper is, however, relevantly connected to the existing literature on constructivism.
The main findings are that constructivism can provide a plausible description of the SEA and hence is a serious contender to established theories of European integration, and, moreover, that constructivism seems able to explain changes in identity and actorness that rationalist explanations lack. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1317189
- author
- Svensson, Adam
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2008
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Constructivism, Liberal Intergovernmentalism, Single European Act, Identity, European integration, Political and administrative sciences, Statsvetenskap, förvaltningskunskap
- language
- English
- id
- 1317189
- date added to LUP
- 2008-06-16 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2008-06-16 00:00:00
@misc{1317189,
abstract = {{By conceiving identity as endogenously defined and construing other central political concepts according to this assumption, constructivism has proven apt to understand and explain phenomena that eariler were hard to grasp. Constructivist ideas have here been used in order to analyze the events surrounding the Single European Act as a contrast to the more conventional rationalist approach used by Liberal Intergovernmentalism. As a result of this analysis, proposals for developments of the constructivist framework are put forward, the most important one being a specification of the conditions under which shaping or reshaping of identity occurs.
The empirical material is entirely made up of secondary sources such as books and articles. Since the focus of this paper is on the theoretical conflict between rationalist and constructivist analyses of European integration, the empirical aspect has an illustrative purpose rather than presenting further material. The theoretical part of the paper is, however, relevantly connected to the existing literature on constructivism.
The main findings are that constructivism can provide a plausible description of the SEA and hence is a serious contender to established theories of European integration, and, moreover, that constructivism seems able to explain changes in identity and actorness that rationalist explanations lack.}},
author = {{Svensson, Adam}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Constructivism and Role-Taking An Analysis of the Single European Act}},
year = {{2008}},
}