As disintegrative tendencies become apparent so does our need for a theoretical understanding of recent developments. It has been argued that integration theory itself is “normatively biased” concentrating on successfully completed deepening, expansion and reform projects. Accordingly, periods of political stagnation and crises of the integration process were accompanied by a theoretical gridlock. In contrast to the common theoretical approaches on integration, disintegration remains largely unexplored. Apart from a few single papers addressing disintegration the matter has not been sufficiently defined or charted yet (Webber 2013; Schmitter 2012; Schimmelfennig 2012).
Considering differences and commonalities of this nascent disintegration discourse, our paper seeks to explore disintegration from the starting point as inverse concept of integration and explore possible analytical shortcomings. This not only enables us to qualitatively dissociate from concepts such as differentiated integration, but also to make normative, constitutional and problem-solving bias explicit. Moreover, we argue in favor of a dialectical understanding of both disintegration and integration. This allows the inclusion of analytical dimensions, hence taking e.g. socio-economic or legitimacy aspects into account.
