Convergence, Cohesion and Integration in the European Union

306 Pages·1995·14.813 MB·English

by  Robert Leonardi (auth.)

CONVERGENCE, COHESION AND INTEGRATION
IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
Also by Robert Leonardi
ITALIAN CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY:
The Politics of Dominance (with Douglas A. Wertman)
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN AN INTEGRATING
EUROPEAN MARKET: The Case of Tuscany
THE GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF ITALY
THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF REGIONAL
GOVERNMENTS IN ITALY
(with R. D. Putnam and R. Y. Nanetti)
THE REGIONS AND THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY: The
Impact of the Single Market on the Underdeveloped Areas
THE REGIONS AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION:
The Case of Emilia Romagna
YEARBOOK OF ITALIAN POLITICS
Convergence, Cohesion
and Integration in
the European Union
Robert Leonardi
Jean Monnet Lecturer in European Union Politics and Policy, and
Director of the Economic and Social Cohesion
Laboratory of the European Institute
London School of Economics and Political Science
~
MACMILLAN
© Robert Leonardi 1995
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1995 978-0-333-62788-4
A II rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
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issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published in Great Britain 1995 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-39350-3 ISBN 978-0-230-37278-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230372788
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
19 8 7 6 5 4
03 02 01 00 99 98
First published in the United States of America 1995 by
Scholarly and Reference Division,
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-12384-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leonardi, Robert, 1945-
Convergence, cohesion and integration in the European Union I
Robert Leonardi.
p. em.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-312-12384-0
I. Europe-Economic integration. 2. European Federation.
I. Title.
HC24I.L42 1995
337.1'4--dc20 94-31779
(CIP)
To Marcello and the challenge of the future

Contents
1 Cohesion in the European Union 1
Introduction 1
The motivations behind European integration:
neofunctionalism and the market 9
Incrementalism and intergovernmentalism 10
Spillover and the economic foundations of
ncofunctionalism 17
The impact of spillover on levels of government 23
2 Regional Disparities and Centre-Periphery
Relations in the European Union 33
Economic development and regional disparities 33
Convergence theories 35
Divergence theories 40
The role of peripheral states in the European
Union 44
Centre-periphery theories in political science
and economics 47
3 Methodology for the Study of Convergence 60
The empirical criteria for evaluating
convergence 60
The hypotheses and scenarios for the study of
convergence 65
The need to redefine cases and variables for
the analysis 75
4 The Findings: The Dependent Variables 86
Defining the dependent variables 86
Four decades of convergence 87
The trend in intra- and interstate disparities 116
The dependent variables: the Greek, Spanish
and Portuguese regions, 1981-91 119
5 The Italian Mezzogiomo: Does it Fit the
Convergence Model? 141
Southern Italy in comparative perspective 141
Italy's dual economy 141
vii
viii Contents
The failure of the third economic miracle:
contiguous growth and the sources of
underdevelopment 159
6 The Fmdings: Independent Variables 169
Economic change and the role of place 169
The search for explanatory variables 171
The consequences of cohesion on policy
making 176
7 The Convergence Model of European
Integration 183
Integration and convergence in the European
Union 183
The theoretical structure of the European
end-state 200
The impact of convergence and integration
on nation-states 207
8 Networks and Networking in the European
Union 217
Networks and networking strategies 217
Networks and institutional infrastructure 222
The operationalisation of networks 229
9 European Union Linkages 238
Forms of linkage networks 238
Types of network system 243
The ethics of networks 246
EU networks 248
Structural Funds networks 257
10 Conclusions 261
The European Union after Maastricht 261
Federalism and functionalism 264
The demise of neofunctionalism 268
Realists and intergovernmentalists 272
The convergence approach to European
integration 279
Index 285
1 Cohesion in the
European Union
INTRODUCTION
During the 1980s the goal of economic and social cohesion
became an important part of the debate on economic conver
gence and political integration in the European Union (EU).
The three concepts - convergence, cohesion and integration
- have in the past been used in separate disciplines to study
specific aspects of economic and political developments in Eu
rope. 1 Now the three concepts can and must be used together
to understand the underlying changes taking place in the struc
ture of European society and political institutions. The discus
sion will focus on cohesion because that is the goal that has
achieved prominence in the European debate and has been
forcefully emphasised in the changes to the Rome Treaty fol
lowing the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty.
In the latter, cohesion is mentioned as a central concern in
achieving economic convergence and monetary union among
the member states and regions of the EU. That concern has
intensified as difficulties have mounted in maintaining
exchange-rate stability in the European currency markets and
in meeting the criteria for countries to become active partici
pants in monetary union. Cohesion is defined in the 1985
Single European Act as 'reducing disparities between the vari
ous regions and the backwardness of the least-favoured re
gions' (Article 130a). Article 130c discusses the role of the
European Regional Development Fund in helping to 'redress
the principal regional imbalances in the Community through
participating in the development and structural adjustment of
regions whose development is lagging behind'.
The 1991 Maastricht Treaty reaffirmed the EU's commit
ment to cohesion, and the Delors II budget proposal, agreed
in December 1992 at the Edinburgh Summit, carried with it a
strong commitment to increase spending in the less developed
member states by doubling the Structural Funds (Regional
Fund, Socia) Fund and Agricultural Guidance Fund) and
I