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Revisiting the asymmetry thesis: negative and positive integration in the EU

  • The ‘asymmetry thesis’, articulated by Fritz Scharpf, holds that EU governance is characterised by an asymmetry between positive and negative integration. The EU has well-developed capacities for negative integration but only limited capacities for positive integration. The present paper challenges the orthodoxy that this thesis has become in EU law and political science scholarship. It argues that the asymmetry thesis no longer accurately depicts European integration, revisiting its key legal and institutional assumptions. Taking the internal market as the most likely case to test the thesis, we show that negative integration has become weaker, positive integration has gained in strength, and both developments have had an impact on the substance of EU law and policymaking, which is promoting non-economic concerns and market-correcting policies to a greater extent than it used to. These shifts, so we contend, could be even more pronounced in other areas of European integration.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Author(s):Martijn van den BrinkORCiD, Mark DawsonORCiD, Jan Zglinski
Parent Title (English):Journal of European Public Policy
Publication year:2023
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2023.2296940
Release Date:2024/02/08
Hertie School Research:Jacques Delors Centre
AY 23/24:AY 23/24
Licence of document (German):Metadaten / metadata
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