Idiosyncrasy and integration : suggestions from comparative political economy
- February 2003
There is a growing consensus in comparative political economy that globalization is not eliminating the distinctive character of specific nation-states. Even in Europe, where formal integration between countries is most profound, nation-states remain idiosyncratic. Starting from this consensus, the questions I ask ar: (a) how can we explain the coincidence of national idiosyncracy and international integration; (b) what does our explanation tell us about processes of European integration? The answers, I argue, lie in two theoretical traditions - one stemming from Karl Polanyi`s (1957) insistence on the social embeddedness of market institutions and the other from Gunnar Myrdal`s (1956) interpretation of the cumulative casuality behind integration at the national and international levels. Although well received in other areas, neither tradition has played much of a role in the study of the European Union. The article concludes by suggesting a research program that could develop from the interface between idiosyncrasy and integration