Revisiting the Single European Act (and the Common Wisdom on Globalization)

Abstract

The European program of liberalization launched by the Single European Act (SEA) of 1987 is commonly seen as a powerful instance of “globalization” trends of economic integration, liberalization, and international institution building. This article revisits the origins of the SEA to argue that the extent and success of its liberalizing program depended on a causally distinct push for European institutional reform. A retracing of concrete political patterns behind the SEA greatly strengthens broader statistical and theoretical challenges to the notion of strong universal trends of globalization.