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Twisted Paths to European Integration: Comparing Agriculture and Transport Policies in a Transnational Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2011

KIRAN KLAUS PATEL  and
JOHAN SCHOT
KIRAN KLAUS PATEL
Affiliation:
Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands; [email protected]
JOHAN SCHOT
Affiliation:
School of Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ Eindhoven, The Netherlands; [email protected]
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Abstract

Taking the comparison of agricultural and transport policies as an example, this article argues for a new way of writing European integration history. It goes beyond the state-centric confines of the diplomatic history which has dominated the field so far and challenges the teleologies in most accounts. Instead, it argues for the need to take into account long-term perspectives as well as the role of transnational actors with a more contingent narrative. Moreover, it demonstrates that the availability of alternative inter- and transnational regimes can be decisive for the trajectory of integration within EC/EU parameters.

Chemins tordus vers l'intégration européenne: perspectives transnationales et comparaison des politiques d'agriculture et du transport

A l'exemple d'une comparaison entre les politiques de l'agriculture et du transport, cet article defend une nouvelle approche pour l'histoire de l'intégration européenne. Il transcende les limites état-centriques de l'histoire diplomatique, qui domine depuis si longtemps, et lance un défi aux téléologies omniprésentes. A leur place, l'article préconise l'inclusion évaluative des perspectives à long terme, et du rôle des acteurs transnationaux dont la narration est plus contingente. Il démontre aussi que l'existence d'alternatives, au niveau international aussi bien que national, peut s'avérer décisif pour un trajectoire intégratif opérant selon les paramètres de l'Europe communautaire.

Der gewundene weg zur integration: europäische landwirtschafts- und agrarpolitik in transnationaler perspektive

Aufbauend auf einem Vergleich zwischen der europäischen Agrar- und der Transportpolitik plädiert dieser Artikel für eine neue Art, europäische Integrationsgeschichte zu schreiben. Er geht über jene staatszentrierte Perspektive der Diplomatiegeschichte hinaus, welche das Feld bislang dominiert hat und hinterfragt den teleologischen Ansatz, der bislang viele Darstellungen prägte. Entgegen der präsentistischen Tendenz der bisherigen Forschung wählt er einen Ansatz, der bis ins 19. Jahrhundert zurückgreift und zudem transnationale Akteure einbezieht. So kann er zeigen, dass die Existenz von alternativen inter- und transnationalen Regimen manchmal entscheidend für den Fortgang der europäischen Integration war.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , November 2011 , pp. 383 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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19 Kiran Klaus Patel, Europäisierung wider Willen, 25–47; for the nineteenth century, see for example Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 20–32.

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31 See COM (61) 50 final, Ch. 2.

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58 For this conclusion see N. Piers Ludlow, ‘Governing Europe: Charting the Development of a Supranational Political System’, in Kaiser and Varsori, European Union History, 109–27.

59 One can extend this agenda even further to a general notion of Europeanisation; on this, see Conway and Patel, Europeanization in the Twentieth Century.

60 Knudsen, Ann-Christina L., ‘European Integration in the Image and the Shadow of Agriculture’, in Dinan, Desmond, ed., Origins and Evolution of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 191–217Google Scholar.

61 For this history see Erdmenger, The European Community Transport Policy, 14–25.

62 For the Trans-European Network Initiative on Transport see Stevens, Transport Policy in the European Union, 171–98.