The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential contributions of the English School of International Relations and Neo-Weberian historical sociology of the state to theorizing differentiated integration in the EU.
Both lines of inquiry place the question of integration / disintegration under a macrohistorical framework, and presume that there exists a constant to and fro movement between centralization and de-centralization across history.
Both also allow for variation in centralizing systems – the English School through its concept of ‘radial empires’ and the Neo-Weberian School through its concept of ‘sociospatial capacity for organization’. Accordingly, if the EU is construed as an empire, its radial reach will be stronger in some places than in others. Likewise, the members of the EU will have a greater sociospatial capacity to organize certain policy areas and not others.
My proposed contribution will address these two concepts of 'radial empires' and 'sociospatial capacity' in particular, and ask if the English School and the Neo-Weberian School, or indeed a synthesis of them, can offer a viable route for theorizing differentiated integration in the EU today.
