THE "STATE"- The concept of statehood and the European Union

Abstract

This study uses a qualitative approach to examine the criterions and specific characteristics of the abstraction which is referred to as the state. The ambition is to explain and identify the characteristics that needs to be present whenever something is to be called a state. To achieve this, theories on statehood are presented, resulting in six specific criterions and characteristics of the state. These six characteristics are then applied to a specific case, the EU, with the ambition to investigate if the EU, based on the theoretical framework presented, can be described as a state. This study is limited to what makes a state a state and therefore, regimes or political systems in terms of normative references is not studied. As for the EU, the study is limited to whether the EU is to be considered as a state or not, i.e. not what kind of a state or regime that the EU could possibly constitute. The results and conclusions of this study is that EU is not yet able to be referred to as a state. However, it is clear that the Union certainly has the ambition to one day become something which might be a United States of Europe.