Transnationalization of the society of Germany: Developments, causes, and effects in the process of European integration

We define transnationalization as the relationship between the amount of in ternal communication and external (boarder crossing) communication of a sub system of a nation state. This article tries to give empirical answers to t hree research questions: 1. To what extent are the different subsystems (sc ience, art, economy politics) of the society of Germany transnationalized a nd was there an increase in transnationalization in the period 1950-1995, a s the notion of transnationalization and globalization suggests? 2. The com parison between different subsystems-will show that they do indeed have dif ferent levels of transnationalization. We use an inter-systemic comparison to generate hypotheses about the causes of different levels of transnationa lization. 3. Finally we ask what effects the process of transnationalizatio n will have on the political system. Processes of transnationalization can be politically contained if the political system develops in the same direc tion of transnationalization as the other systems of society. We differenti ate :between the regulatory and the integrative functions of the political system and ask whether and to what extent the European Union will be able t o regulate and integrate processes of transnationalization especially those of the economy.