POLITICAL INTEGRATION
As already indicated, the weaker forms of international political integration refer to cooperation between states and formations of state-based regimes. The deeper forms of integration refer to the constitution of new political entities, which have a certain degree of independence in regard to the individual states.
Thus, political integration involves the strengthening of a political system, in particular the scope and capacity of its decision-making process. Besides this institutional aspect of integration, there is as well the normative dimension of creating a political community.
Legal integration is closely related to political integration and involves the establishment of common legal rules and a common legal system for the citizens of the different states of a region.
Sometimes political integration is interpreted as the creation of supranational institutions. However, as already indicated, supranational institutions cannot be considered as the condition par excellence to achieve an increased coherence. Treaties might well stipulate a certain degree of sovereignty transfer, however the actual practice might sometimes diverge considerably from the stipulations of the treaty.
An example of Political Integration:
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