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Hare and Tortoise: The Race toward Integration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Peter J. Katzenstein
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Extract

Students of integration place their money on different beasts. Some working with the neo-functionalist model bet on the hare, while others using the cybernetic model elect the tortoise. The difference arises in part from their disparate perspectives of the racetrack: Neo-functionalists, with their assumption of a short-cycle process, view only a segment of the track and sight the rabbit sprinting; students of the cybernetic model, assuming a long-cycle process, insist that the whole race be watched and that the runners be clocked at different stages. As bets are still being taken, we might reconsider the basis on which odds are set.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , Spring 1971 , pp. 290 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1971

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References

1 For a recent review of the neo-functionalist model see Hansen, Roger D., “Regional Integration: Reflections on a Decade of Theoretical Efforts,” World Politics, 01 1969 (Vol. 21, No. 2), pp.242–271CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Under the impact of current events much of the writing of the last years has attempted to reformulate the model so that it can explain disintegrate and stagnant processes as well as integrative ones. For example, see Lindberg, Leon N. and Scheingold, Stuart A., Europe's Would-Be Polity: Patterns of Change in the European Community (Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1970), pp. 134–140Google Scholar; Nye, Joseph S., Peace in Parts: Integration and Conflict in Regional Organization (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., forthcoming)Google Scholar; and Schmitter, Philippe, “A Revised Theory of International Integration” (Cambridge, Mass: Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 01 1970)Google Scholar.

3 A critical review of the paradigm has been given in Fisher's, William E. article, “An Analysis of the Deutsch Sociocausal Paradigm of Political Integration,” International Organization, Spring 1969 (Vol. 23, No. 2), pp. 254–290CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 The difference in perspective stands out clearly in the length of the time period analyzed. While most studies by neo-functionalists focus on time periods of five to ten years of the postwar era, two prominent studies which employ the cybernetic model deal with a 40- and 70-year time span in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. See Merritt, Richard L., Symbols of American Community, 1735–1775 (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1966)Google Scholar, and Russett, Bruce M., Community and Contention: Britain and America in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

5 A similar distinction appears to be implied by Kenneth A. Dahlberg. See his “Regional Integration:The Neo-Functional versus a Configurative Approach,” International Organization, Winter 1970 (Vol. 24, No. 1), pp. 127–128Google Scholar. See also Inglehart, Ronald, “Trends and Nontrends in the Western Alliance: A Review,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 03 1968 (Vol. 12, No. 1), pp. 122–123Google Scholar, and Lindberg, Leon N., “The European Community as a Political System: Notes toward the Construction of a Model,” Journal of Common Market Studies, 06 1967 (Vol. 5, No. 4), pp. 345, 354CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Existing classifications for the study of integration processes in the fields of sociology, social psychology, and international relations have been given by Landecker, Werner S., “Types of Integration and Their Measurement,” American Journal of Sociology, 01 1951 (Vol. 56, No. 4), pp. 332–340CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Katz, Daniel, Kelman, Herbert, and Flacks, Richard, “The National Role: Some Hypotheses about the Relation of Individuals to Nation in America Today,” Peace Research Society (International) Papers, 1963 (Vol. 1), Chicago Conference, pp. 113–127Google Scholar; and Nye, Joseph S., “Comparative Regional Integration: Concept and Measurement,” International Organization, Autumn 1968 (Vol. 22, No. 4), pp. 855–880CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A fifth variable cluster, noticeably absent in the two paradigms discussed here, would consist of personality variables to be investigated by the use of biographical data.

7 The distinction between numerous, routine communications and rare, nonroutine interactions has been made by Charles A. McClelland and Gary D. Hoggard. See the article “Conflict Patterns in the Interactions among Nations,” in Rosenau, James N., ed., International Politics and Foreign Policy: A Reader in Research and Theory (rev. ed.; New York: Free Press, 1969), p. 713Google Scholar. A number of attempts are now being made to develop methods for quantifying data in diplomatic history and to create valid and reliable event statistics. In addition to the work of McClelland see also Moses, Lincoln E. et al. , “Scaling Data on Inter-Nation Action,” Science, 05 26, 1967 (Vol. 156, No. 3778), pp. 1054–1059CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; and Azaar, Edward E., “The Dimensionality of Violent Conflict: A Quantitative Analysis” (Paper delivered at the Conference on Middle East Conflict sponsored by the Peace Research Society [International], Cambridge, Mass., 06 4–5, 1970)Google Scholar.

8 One example is the more explicit inclusion of measures of similarity in the expanded versions of the neo-functionalist model which have been applied to integration processes outside of Western Europe.

9 As an example of how costly the neglect of such considerations can be see Fisher, , International Organization, Vol. 23, No. 2, p. 286Google Scholar.

10 In the language of statistics such a graph would help us to discover interaction effects.