Abstract:
The renewal of interest in the European Community in the last ten years has sparked a new round of political theorizing to explain European unification. Neofunctionalism, an early and influential regional integration theory which was discredited during the 1970s is coming back in modified form. One of these new theories which builds on neofunctionalism is dialectical functionalism. This paper reviews the tenets of neofunctionalism, as well as its shortcomings, then presents dialectical functionalism in relation to neofunctionalism. Next, a case study on the development of European Community telecommunications policy is presented, then the paper concludes with an application of dialectical functionalism to EC telecommunications policy. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Vibeke Sorensen, Professor of International Organizations at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands, whose guidance was invaluable in the completion of this paper. Her untimely death in January 1995 robbed the world of an outstanding scholar and person.
