The evolution of the European Union (EU) seems to epitomize the transformation of contemporary politics. To use the words of Christopher Ansell in his introductory chapter to this book, in Europe it is evident that “the mutually reinforcing relations between territory, authority, and societal interests and identities can no longer be taken for granted.” Although formally still sovereign, the (Western) European nation-states have witnessed a migration of a considerable degree of their own individual sovereignty both toward the supranational EU and the subnational regional and local governments. A silent divorce between sovereignty and authority has been practiced. The decisional power over a growing number of traditionally domestic policy issues has been transferred from the single nation-states to the network of European Community institutions. Of course, the single nation-states are part of those institutions, but their individual representatives participate in collective decision making that dilutes their influence and power. The authority over decisions they have to bring back home is shared with other nation-state representatives, community officials, and members of the EU parliament. Moreover, those decisions are the outcome of a political process that has features of fragmentation, porosity, and indeterminacy unknown to domestic political processes.

On this basis, it has been rightly said that the EU indicates the crisis of the Westphalian state (Caporaso 1996). In international relations literature, a Westphalian state refers primarily to the “institutional arrangement associated with a particular bundle of characteristics – recognition, territory, exclusive authority, and effective internal and transborder regulation or control” (Krasner 1999: 227).