The European Union (or the European Community) challenges both academic scholarship and political leadership by presenting a phenomenon that is rather unique in the international milieux. The integration of the twelve member states of the European Union questions the fundamental assumption of international politics, namely, the nation-state as the primary entity in the international system. This dissertation purports to expand our understanding of international integration by comparing the federal and national integration of Germany with that of the European Union By comparing and contrasting integration theories such as functionalism, neofunctionalism and federalism with intergovernmentalism the dissertation attempts to shed some light on the future course of the European Union. Such an exercise is conducted by examining German integration which began in early nineteenth century. German unification in the nineteenth century started with the building of a customs union which was the forerunner to regional confederal arrangements and finally the Bismarckian federation of 1871. The integration of the member states of the European Union closely resembles the patterns of German unification Furthermore, a close examination of the German federal system reveals that intergovernmentalism is not antithetical to federalism. The German federal system as designed by the 1949 federal constitution is characterized as intergovernmental federalism. An implication of this for international integration theory is that the differences between supranationalism--as espoused by functionalist, neofunctionalist and federalist theorists--and nationalism (as advocated by intergovernmentalists) can be bridged by emphasizing that intergovernmentalism can coexist with federalism and that they are not mutually exclusive categories. Thus, by delving into comparative politics scholarship on German federalism, this dissertation attempts to find a common ground for drawing parallels and to learn some lessons for international relations theory as it applies to the institutions and processes of the European Union
