European Integration Legitimacy since the Euro-crisis and Lessons for East-Asian Cooperation

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 국제대학원 : 국제학과(국제지역학전공), 2014. 2. 이영섭.This research assesses the feasibility of regional integration in EastAsia (China, South Korea and Japan), using the European integration precedent and in the light of the current Euro-crisis. We find that the main difference between Europe and EastAsia in terms of integration lies in the capacity of institutionalizing economic commitment. Such decision is often seen as an essentially top-down political move, but we demonstrate that citizens do have an influence on those choices, through a range of direct and indirect constraints on political decisions, based on their legitimacy perception. We conclude that EastAsia is unlikely to embark in institutionalized integration before a strong regional identity has emerged, which is likely to be a very lengthy process.Our study of regional integration legitimacy is therefore a concrete assessment of what criteria citizens base their perceptions upon when exerting these constraints. We address the relevance of the European construction experience for East Asias specificities, taking into account existing theoretical frameworks andhistorical phenomena, like the German economic reunification. We then harness this understanding to the current Euro-crisis by showing the limit of EUs gain-led legitimacy, and highlighting the need for strong regional identity prior to integration in both regions.I. Introduction 1 1. Rationale and objective 1 2. Basic concepts 4 3. Other methodological considerations 10 II. EUs relevance for EastAsia: economically-led regionalism 13 1. EU and EastAsia at a glance: regionalism and regionalization 13 2. EastAsian cooperation as a replication of EU integration? 17 3. EU a la carte: monetary integration as an isolated instrument for EastAsia? 21 4. EU as a logic: unintended regime integration through credible economic commitments 24 III. Theoretical overview: legitimacy in European construction 33 1. Neofunctionalism: legitimacy as a spillover 33 2. Intergovernmentalism: legitimacy as a state monopole 37 3. Post-Maastricht theory: Euro-citizenship and input legitimacy 40 IV. Crisis in action 45 1. Citizens influence during the crisis: constraining perception 45 2. Failure concealment: regime and gain perception impeding fiscal union 52 3. The unachieved transfer acceptability: Regime and identity perception 60 V. Lessons and prospects for EastAsia: an Optimum Identity Area? 73 1. Lesson 1: Integration cannot derive from optimum economic efficiency 73 2. Lesson 2: Weak identity prior to integration makes it unstable and partial 77 3. Lesson 3: Anticipation of unintendedoutcomes 81 4. Prospects 83 VI. Conclusion 85 References 88Maste