From “the New Roman Empire” to “the United States of Europe”?: A Rokkanian Perspective on EU Enlargement

“New Europe”, Aspects of the EU Enlargement

Abstract

The ongoing process of globalization is transforming the world. Especially, the rapid enlargement of European Union (EU) member states after the cold war is the direct reaction to the globalization process. The age of globalization and the consolidation of a transnational entity, the EU, require the macro framework to analyze. In the EU, there are 25 member states with different conditions. In this paper an attempt is made to indicate some possible framework to analyze EU in a macro way as “the New Roman Empire.” The conditions associated with the existence and stability of a political system have been one of the leading concerns of political science. It is often said that the differences in the constitutional forms of government in each political system are central to the problem. It is true that each system has different constitutional forms arising out of a different background. The term “regime” is the core to the problem. Bridging the gap between the international relations theory and the comparative politics theory, the differences in “regime” types point out some relations between the constitutional forms of government, i. e. the working of political systems, and some aspects of economy and culture. In sum, the co-existence of different regime types in the EU might hinder to transform “the New Roman Empire” to “the United States of Europe.” In order to review this theme, particular attention must be paid to the contribution made by Stein Rokkan. We have here the opportunity to explore the possible application of his theory to the post cold war globalizing and regionalizing world.