THE PHARE PROGRAM AND THE CONCEPT OF SPILLOVER - NEOFUNCTIONALISM IN THE MAKING

This article argues that neofunctionalism has been wrongly underestima ted and widely neglected in recent years. It suggests that neofunction alism can be developed in a meaningful way to explain the emergence of PHARE as well as the decision-making structures and dynamics shaping the programme. A number of subsidiary neofunctionalist contributions h ave been largely ignored, and many of the recent partial theories eith er reconfirm neofunctionalist hypotheses or provide useful insights fo r their revision and development. This analysis aims to upgrade undere stimated neofunctionalist assumptions, such as externalization, engren age and task expansion, as well as to extend the current understanding of neofunctionalism by incorporating the mediating role of the Presid ency and the phenomenon of epistemic communities into the theory. The findings of this study challenge those of Haggard and Moravcsik's anal ysis of the political economy of financial assistance to Eastern Europ e. Apart from refuting the conclusions of their case study, this artic le challenges Moravcsik's approach more generally.