Supranationalization of Government and Governance

This paper deals with the development of a supranational political executive at the European level, and how such an institution might affect EU governance processes and policies. The paper starts by outlining some theoretical explanations of organizational changes and their consequences for governance processes and policies. It then presents some key steps in the modern history of European international cooperation before focusing on the birth and development of a supranational political executive, i.e. today’s European Commission. Arguably, the coming about of EU agencies should be seen as complementing the consolidation of a supranational executive. Although the EU polity might be considered as sui generis within the current state system, its development and characteristics nevertheless have much in common with former centralization of political power in Europe, e.g. modern state-building. Finally, the paper turns to how a supranational executive actually makes a difference to EU governance processes and policies. An intriguing and important question is to what extent a supranational organization delivers policies that are qualitatively different from those policies that originate from intergovernmental organization?