The European Dream

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Forging a Union

Unlike past states and empires whose origins are embedded in the myth of heroic victories on the battle-field, the European Union is novel in being the first mega governing institution in history to be born out of the ashes of defeat. Rather than commemorate a noble past, it sought to ensure that the past would never again be repeated. After a thousand years of unremitting conflict, war, and bloodshed, the nations of Europe emerged from two world wars with their population maimed and killed, their ancient monuments and cities lying in ruins, their worldly treasures depleted, and their way of life destroyed. Determined that they would never again take up arms against each other, the nations searched for a political mechanism that could move them beyond their ancient rivalries.

In a series of treaties following World War II, Europe's political elites began the painstaking process of creating a united Europe, all the while attempting to define the limits of power of the emerging European Community. The federalists argued for ceding more power to the European central authority. The confederalists, by contrast, tried to keep power in the hands of the member states, viewing the new governing structure as a means to strengthen and coordinate their national objectives. Every compromise along the way reflected the tensions and strains between these two divergent visions.

While the powers that be continue to jostle back and forth between federalism and confederalism, the very technological, economic, and social realities that gave rise to the European Community, and that continue to push it along its journey to union, have created a political dynamic of a different sort. Rather than becoming a super-state or a mechanism to represent the enlightened national self-interests, the European Union has metamorphosed into a third form. It has become a discursive forum whose function is to referee relationships and help coordinate activity among a range of players, of which the nation-state is only one. The European Union's primary role has become orchestral. It facilitates the coming together of networks of engagement that include nation-states, but also extend outward to transnational organizations and inward to municipal and regional governments, as well as civil society organizations.

The European Union, then, is less a place than a process. Its genius is its indeterminacy. Unlike the traditional nation-state, whose purpose is to integrate, assimilate, and unify the diverse interests inside its borders, the European Union has no such mission. To the contrary, its role is just the opposite of what nation-states do. Its political cachet is bound up in facilitating and regulating a competing flow of divergent activities and interests.

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