Revisionism as a logic of institutional change

• Date: 01 September 2017
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/eulj.12233

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT

Revisionism as a logic of institutional change

Jonathan White*

Abstract

How does a treaty‐based organisation account for its shifts in policy and procedure? With the European Union's

history in focus, the paper observes a pattern of evolution by which departures from existing practice are justified

as moves to better honour commitments already held. This logic of change‐as‐fidelity has long been the usual way

of doing transnational politics in post‐war Europe. The concept of revisionism, borrowed from the study of

innovation in purposive organisations more generally, elucidates its place in the early European Community.

The paper goes on to examine how more recent developments, especially visible in the Euro crisis, challenge this

logic of change and threaten to displace it. It concludes by discussing what this implies for the political nature of

the EU, and whether the revival of the revisionist method is plausible or desirable.

1|INTRODUCTION

The European Union is an expression of the fundamental transformation of European states since the Second World

War. It is the sum of numerous far‐reaching changes in the way decisions are made and the kinds of policy they give

rise to. Yet the transformative character of European integration is considerably less visible in the design and justifi-

cation of particular steps. If one looks at how innovations and reorientations have tended to be pursued, more often

one sees the accent on continuity. One of the recurring features of Europe's political transformation for much of the

Union's history has been the construal of change not as significant departure, but as a way to better honour commit-

ments already held.

Change in the name of fidelity: this, I suggest, has long been a central self‐image of the EU as an evolving associ-

ation. As the first sections of the paper argue, the practices involved in honouring the principle of fidelity are well

captured with the concept of ‘revisionism’, a distinct mode of political change typically associated with purposive

organisations. The centrality of revisionism to the EU corresponds to how the latter was long seen as just such an

organisation, defined by the pursuit of shared ends. Further, the privileged place given to law in building the EU,

and the detachment of much of its decision making from direct forms of popular influence, have reinforced the

propensity to pursue change in the name of fidelity.

Tendencies arising in later phases of the EU's development have increasingly challenged this self‐image. In the

convulsions of the euro crisis, the principle of fidelity came under severe strain. More visibly than usual, measures

were taken that resisted construal as mere refinements of the means by which existing commitments are honoured.

One saw the establishment of new institutions and policies not credibly traceable to commitments already held. Lip

service was still paid to the logic of fidelity, but in an increasingly convoluted fashion; moreover, it sat awkwardly with

*

London School of Economics

Drafts of this work were presented at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Goethe‐Universität Frankfurt, the University of Oslo, and

at a workshop in Bilbao. In addition to participants at each, I especially thank Dimitrios Efthymiou, Christian Joerges, Kalypso

Nicolaïdis and Lea Ypi for their comments.

DOI: 10.1111/eulj.12233

406 © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Eur Law J. 2017;23:406–416.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/eulj