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II. Reconciling Application Patterns: Trial Application to the Baltic Sea Case
One of the major specificities of classic system theory is its claim to offer models with
global applicability. Certain procedural flows are claimed to be common to all levels of
social action. This universalist claim opens the scene to trial applications, such as the
one to a complexly networked region like the BSR. The employment of the Parsonian
AGIL scheme for the explanation of Baltic Sea social and political reality certainly
imposes a series of methodological and operational problems. Chosing a very direct
way of application one could discuss the various forms of how AGIL controlled and
structured systems and subsystems are distributed in and across the region, and how
they relate to their broader systemic framework.
Concerning abstraction, this kind of theorisation has clearly reached the level where the
identification of examples from the ‘real’ world becomes difficult. One could just take
the complex of Baltic Sea Regionalism, pick out certain actors (“roles”) or processes
and try to identify in each and every case of ‘what this very element is an instance.’
Adjacent internationalism or regionalist activism, as identified earlier, is a formative
element in Swedish foreign policy towards its immediate neighbourhood. It could be
interpreted, for example, as part of a social interaction with the allegedly hostile
surrounding and a reaction to the redoubtable supranationalist pressure coming from the
European core. The functions maintaining the Swedish system of reluctance are
performed by several parts of the social system and reproduced at the sub-system level
(see figure below).
social systems
(not specified)
A G
I L
A G
I L
ADAPTATION
GOAL L ATTAINMENT
INTEGRATION
LATENCY
Figure 19: Complex social systems, Parsons
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superficial compliance with
supranational acquis and
expectations in the
European scene
no deep-going
incorporation of acquis in
order to maximise added
value of outsider position
selective
engagement
with
second
intention
interaction
with the
outside
world
integrative attitude at
regional level (selective)
(is seen as asset from
outside – strategic
objectives remain
undiscovered)
reproduction
of Swedish
exceptionalism
in national culture
Figure 20: The AGIL pattern – the example of Sweden’s regionalist activism
This trajectory of incorporating the specific regionalist attitude of ‘adjacent activism’ or
‘internationalism’ is effected by multiple social processes. Together they substantiate
political routine and the internalisation of the respective strategic action model in all
parts of society. As a result, the action strategy becomes deeply incorporated; the latent
patterns are reinforced repeatedly by the resulting social routine. This means that both
the ‘inside’ persistence (the ‘bubble” of Swedish self-transfiguration) and the one
warranted from outside (Sweden is persistently seen as a model) are safely maintained
over a long period of time. The durable disfunctionality of one of the functional entities
would significantly unbalance the whole systemic process, while short-term irritations
might even lead to a reinforced backlash provoking increased isolation, and thus,
reinvigoration of exceptionalist attitudes and objectives.
By identifying the functional elements for each of the respective sub-systems, this
depiction could, in a next step, be linked to its wider framework, the European
integration complex.
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The high level of abstraction of these models might be both an asset and a weakness of
comparative theorising. On the one hand, it opens the analytical perspective for new
ways of structuring empirical events and phenomena and allows for a broad, universal
and flexible application to (apparently) very different research objects; on the other
hand, it also bears the risk of turning the analytical process into an auto-dynamic act of
‘thinking it to the end’, and thereby, of loosing track of the empirical relevance or even
compliance and legitimacy.
Parsons has been criticised for mingling theoretical ‘truth’ with empirical evidence in
the course generating inferential conclusions, and for using both in an instrumentalist
and in a selective way in order to achieve a consistent line of argumentation. A similar
criticism could and should certainly be raised against the preceding trial application of
his model. Hence, keeping the intrinsic shortfalls of ‘globalist’ models of explanation in
mind, this ‘short ride into the field of Comparative Theory’ will not conclude with a set
of rigid analytical claims but rather leave the floor to a concluding statement on the
theoretical incorporation of Baltic Sea Regionalism and its connection to nation state
regional policy.
F. Conclusions on the Theoretical Incorporation of Baltic Sea Regionalism
This chapter will seek to gather the insights that the foregoing discussion of various
different theoretical camps has brought about. The issue raised at the very beginning of
this study about the ‘(non)sense of theorisation’ shall build the overall point of reference
for this conclusion of the theoretical section. The search for an appropriate theoretical
foundation for the research problems addressed in this study has led us through three
different strands in political theory. The first, and in respect to the topic of the study, the
most obvious step in this process was to consult the bulk of (European) Integration
superficial
compliance
integrative
attitude
second intent
selective
engagement
normative
reproduction of
exceptionalism
Sweden
EU
as either
a group of member states or a
supernational entity
(EU)
normative
incorportation of
Sweden’s role
in the EU
for example
Figure 21: Swedish regionalist activism in relation to the EU framework
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References
Zusammenfassung
Seit 1989 ist es im Ostseeraum zu einer explosionsartigen Entstehung einer Vielzahl von regionalen Initiativen und Zusammenschlüssen gekommen. Der Ostseeraum weist bis heute eine europaweit einzigartig hohe Konzentration an kooperativen regionalen Strukturen auf. Diese bilden gemeinsam ein enges Netzwerk von Vereinigungen, die unter dem Überbegriff der "Ostseezusammenarbeit’ interagieren.
Diese Studie analysiert die Hintergründe dieses regionalen Phänomens oder so genannten „Ostsee-Rätsels“ auf Basis eines Vergleichs zwischen den Regionalpolitiken zweier staatlicher Schlüsselakteure, Schweden und Finnland, wobei der europäische Integrationsprozess als übergeordneter Bezugsrahmen für die Untersuchung dient.