Integrazione e conflitto : per una storia materialista della costruzione europea

The basic assumption of this essay is that European integration has represented, in a substantial part, a response to the dynamics and confl icts unleashed by capitalist development and an instrument of social stabilization. The aim is to show how the integration has been shaped by (and has contributed to) the transformations undergone by capitalism over the decades, linking the history of European integration to the diff erent stages of intercapitalist competition and to the dynamics of social confl ict. In doing so, the article traces the history of European integration, from the early century to the most recent developments, showing how the European institutions developed from the 1950s external buttress of the welfare state to being one of the prime driver of neoliberal globalization. [Publisher's text].