It is usually said that intergovernmentalism refers to the decision-making methods in international organisations, where power is possessed by the member states and decisions are often but not always made by unanimity. Independent appointees of the governments or elected representatives have solely advisory or implementational functions. Intergovernmentalism is used by most international organizations today.

In the context of the European Union, intergovernmentalism means that members of national governments take EU legislative and executive decisions amongst themselves, either by majority vote or by unanimity. These are immediately binding, which implies they do not pass through national parliaments, amendments on the EU treaties being an exception.

An anomaly exists in the Bundesrat of Germany, the upper house in the German federal system, where seats are held by the governments of the Länder. This way intergovernmentalism does not conflict with federalism.

The opposite method of decision-making in political communities is supranationalism.

A theory of regional integration

The theory is not applied on European integration which rejects the idea of neofunctionalism. The theory, initially proposed by Stanley Hoffmann suggests that national governments control the level and speed of European integration. Any increase in power at supranational level, he argues, results from a direct decision by governments. He believed that integration, driven by national governments, was often based on the domestic political and economic issues of the day. The theory rejects the concept of the spill-over effect that neofunctionalism proposes. He also rejects the idea that supranational organisations are on an equal level (in terms of political influence) as national governments.

Intergovernmentalism (a definition)

An approach to integration that treats states, and national Governments in particular, as the primary actors in the integration process. Various intergovernmentalist approaches have been developed in the literature and these claim to be able to explain both periods of radical change in the European Union (because of the converging governmental preferences) and periods of inertia (due to the diverging national interests). Intergovernmentalism is distinguishable from realism and neorealism because of its recognition of both the significance of institutionalisation in international politics and the impact of processes of domestic politics upon governmental preferences.

See also

World government
History Holy Roman Empire · League of Nations · Permanent Court of International Justice · Nuremberg Trials · Tokyo trials · Permanent Court of Arbitration · Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
Concept (proposal) United Nations Parliamentary Assembly · Central Asian Union · Commonwealth Union · Pacific Union · North American Union · East African Federation · Arab Union · Federal Europe · East Asian Community · United States of Africa · United States of Europe · List of political ideologies
Theory (practice) Alter-globalization · Commonwealth · Confederation · Cosmopolitanism · Federalism · Global governance · Globalization · Intergovernmentalism · Mundialization · Supranationalism · Pax · New World Order
Global body United Nations · Interpol · International Monetary Fund · World Bank Group · World Trade Organization · Commonwealth of Nations
Regional body Economic Cooperation Organization · European Union · Latin Union · Council of Europe · Caribbean Community · Arab League · African Union · Union of South American Nations · Shanghai Cooperation Organisation · Association of Southeast Asian Nations · Association of Caribbean States · Central American Integration System · Commonwealth of Independent States · Organization of American States · South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation · Pacific Islands Forum · North Atlantic Treaty Organization · Mercosur
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Movements Federal Union · World Federalist Movement · Global citizens movement
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Intergovernment​alism. -triple-insuffi​ciency.

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Would you please explain how "intergovernmentalism is where each state feels unbound to previous decisions."?
Q. Examples
Asked by jeff r - Fri Feb 13 20:39:13 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. States are bound by federal laws, not the mandates of other states.
Answered by robertminidriver - Tue Feb 17 13:25:30 2009

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