Policy networks in European integration: contemporary history and political science in dialogue

This article discusses the results of recent historical research on policy networks in the first decades of European integration. This research has borrowed some concepts of political science research about the EU as a multi-level system of governance and the role of policy networks. With its broader view on the role of networks in processes of integration, however, it goes beyond the narrow focus on structures and processes of decision-making in certain policy fields. Above all, this research can modify vague assumptions of political science research about the beginnings of transnational policy networks and add to a better understanding of temporal change in the governance of the EU.