Functionalism and Neofunctionalism

The political theory known as functionalism refers to "that policy of shifting responsibility for resolving problems from the nation-state to international bodies 'indirectly, by stealth' (Banyan 2005, 1.)" Under functionalism, the role of governments is to be progressively reduced by indirect methods, and integration is to be actively encouraged by a variety of functionally based, cross-national ties ("What Is the EU" 2005, 5). Neofunctionalism, in essence, takes the functionalist perspective on integration even farther; it calls for the development of official supranational organizations such as the European union (EU) that acquire the sovereignty and the status, in many different arenas, normally reserved to the exercise of the nation-state ("Neofunctionalism" 2005, 1). The purpose of this essay is to consider both functionalism and its successor or derivative, neofunctionalism. Reference will be made to the seminal work in the first instance of theorist David Mitrany and, in the case of neofunctionalism of Jean Monnet.

Functionalism as articulated by Mitrany and described by

Banyan (2005, 2) developed as follows:

"Mitrany's first public expression of his new "functionalist" idea was in a lecture he gave in 1932 at Yale University, on "The Communal Organization of World Affairs." After reviewing all the other models for world order, including world government, and finding them wanting Mitrany had argued that

. . .
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Approximate Word count = 1151
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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