Discussion on European Integration

The European integration has failed* due to the compromise of economic rationale (Maastrict treaty on economic policies), and Kantasian = deontologist passion blinding both Europhiles from the currently shown reality which we can immediately observe....!

* Okey, I meant the "current administration" of European integration failed so that it requires the "new" administration. They still postpone the final weapon to tackle with the Euro crisis, which is the fiscal integration by establishing a common fiscal policy ordered by the EU federal government. But, they certainly "must revise Maastrict treaty " (I bold this word), fundamentally restructure of both labour market (by reducing barriers to enter any national labour market) and capital market (unifying the financial market regulation) to make them more flexible, and reduce the power of national governments (e.g. abolishing the right of incurring national debts, and irrational ego unstabilising the integration process).


But, they still postpone the final weapon to tackle with the Euro crisis, which is the fiscal integration by establishing a common fiscal policy ordered by the EU federal government. I don't think they are going to give up their economic integration so easily. I can see a sort of Kantasian = deontologist passion: They don't see the fact = reality they can obviously see: They merely focus on the anticipated outcome based on their fundamental principle rather than the reality they can see at the immediate moment. Therefore, for both Europhiles, the cost burdened on the European integration doesn't matter for them to quit striving to acquire their anticipated outcome.....

Judging from my point of view which is based on the "reality", "sum of utility", "freedom of choice (individual liberty)", and "economic rationale", the European integration has failed due to the compromise of economic rationale (Maastrict treaty on economic policies), and over-idealised analyses and expectations of European integration based on their fundamental deontologism which blinds them from the currently shown reality which we can immediately observe....!



I am not an enthusiastic supporter of the European Federalism: I would support only if they want to keep the common monetary policy. Actually, compared to North America and Asia, European population mobility rate is still low, which is a disadvantage of not having a strong federal gov't intervention into the business cycle of each member country. However, Europe has more frequent trade tie (GDP share of inter-country/state trade) between the member countries (states) than the USA. This fact lead the European monetary integration inevitable. The US monetary integration works better than European because they naturally had a common interest to make one strong unified nation without the conflict of interests like what we see in Europe. Even though the US citizens are very diverse (sharing each own different identity), they naturally have a very strong fundamental principle as a US citizen which works as "a priori" of their identity as the US citizen. Even though the US citizens are proud of their diversity and keep their own background identity from the motherland where they or their ancestors are from, almost all of them share their pride as the "US citizen". There is one remarkable political leader, who came into the power in a half century ago, said that the stable process of European integration requires one super-national federal authority which conducts them structurally and provides the "a priori" of their identity. His analysis was, and still is, underestimated, but the current situation proves his analysis was not false.

I agree with you having said that there is a risk of the federalism encouraging some member countries to become like Detroid and some minority states in the USA. The current US fiscal and monetary structure is based on Hamiltonian political model. Hamiltonianism advocates in the meritocratic/technocratic bureaucratic centralised structure which puts priority on socioeconomic stability. Thus, this Hamiltonian system merely focuses on the interest of the USA as a whole so that sacrifices the minority states' interest for the US federal interest. This induced that change in the industrial structure caused the highly volatile business cycle of some cities like Detroid. This is one aspect reminding why there are still substantially many people advocating "The South Rise Again". I am not particularly fond of Hamiltonianism at all. However, I noticed that Hamiltonian was once required when the USA needed to be unified when her people's interest became same to protect themselves under one umbrella of the federal principle guideline. Actually, at the time when the USA shifted to the more centralised federalism at the contemporary period, many uninfluential states were willing to support the federalism and be under the influence of the federal interaction due to the benefit from joining the unified social and economic tie with the other states and the federal authority, and the security required to protect from foreign nations. Nonetheless, nowadays, the USA should be more decentralised and many states started to want to be more detached from the federal intervention. This is that the different needs in different time, place, and occasion. Actually, the Mediterranean countries and Eastern European countries were "willing to" join the European political and economic integration more than Germany wanted them. These nations have already had a strong co-integrated business cycle with the main player of European economy so that it was inevitable they required the common currency to smooth the trade between these nations. The Mediterranean countries' GDP is very reliant on the key players in European economy (Germany, France, and Benelux countries). Italian economic and financial centre, Lombardia, is related to the West and Central Europe with a same or higher degree of the tie with the rest of Italy. Spain and Greece depend on exporting their tourism to these key European economic players. Eastern European nations still suffer from the asset of the USSR administration so that they are clinging to the father ship kinda protection from the EU to wipe out the suffrage from the USSR influence. These factors seem to be a resemblance of the USA transit to Hamiltonian nation state. If the centralisation like the US Hamiltonianism is required and answers to the great sum of utility, it should be adapted to temporary. I don't hope the strong federal reform continues in too long term. But, it looks like a temporary centralisation seems to be required as an emergent surgery for Europe....