Postfunctionalism

Article summary

Postfunctionalism is a theory of European integration put forward by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks in 2008. It is in opposition to the previous two main theories of European integration—neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism—as they could not explain critical aspects of European integration such as referendums and European issues becoming a part of national politics. Postfunctionalism emphasises that the European Union has become politicised, and that it is now hard to separate the politics of the EU from that of member states. Hence, the preferences of political parties and national publics now play a crucial role in shaping the EU's politics and integration. Postfunctionalism also puts people's identities at the heart of the debate on European integration, as identifying as European vs. national has a strong correlation with a person's support of the EU and European integration. In 2019, Hooghe and Marks advocated for a pluralist approach to theories of European integration. On this account, neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism and postfunctionalism are not competing approaches but, rather, lenses that discipline our thinking about "the behavior of key actors, the arenas in which they act, and the causal mechanisms that connect their actions to institutional outcomes".…

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