HOOGHE, Lies <br/><br/>
Images of Europe :  orientations to european integration among senior officials of the commission 

 - Cambridge :  Cambridge University Press,  April 1999 
<br/><br/> The European Union is a polity in the making, where political actors contend about basic questions of governance. While students have begun to map contention between public parties and private interests, litlle attention has been paid to how office-holders in the Commission conceive of European  integration. Using interviewn data collected from 140 senior officials of the Commission, I identify contention along four dimensions: whether the EU should have supranational or intergovernmental institutions, whether its should promote regulated capitalism or market liberalism; and whether the elite should defend the European public good or be responsive to various interests. My findings challenge EU theories that conceive of the Commission as a unitary actor with a pro-integration agenda