The Left against Europe? A critical engagement with new constitutionalism and structural dependence theory

Abstract

This article offers a critical engagement with two important strands of left theorizations of European Union integration and globalization, namely, 'new constitutionalism' (a sub-form of neo-Gramscian analysis) and 'structural dependence' theory (rooted in a more orthodox Marxist approach). These approaches suffer, respectively, from an uncritical or one-sided approach to constitutionalism and competitiveness; and from a theoretical conflation of national with regional political economy. While new constitutionalism under-theorizes regionalism partly because of its implicit 'methodological nationalism' and attachment to the ethics of national political economy, structural dependence theory neglects regionalism in pursuing a highly pessimistic structuralist approach to globalizatio