I huvudet på UNASUR och AU – en studie av EU:s roll som förebild i världen

Abstract

This bachelor thesis is a study of the European Union as a role model in the world. Its main focus is to answer the question “In what respects did the European Union (EU) work as a model at the establishment of the African Union (AU) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)?” By doing so it hopes to shed some light on how other unions in the world contemplate the EU. The method is partly theoretical and partly empirical. In the theoretical part, the thesis discusses in what respects the African Union and the Union of South American Nations might and might not be similar to the European Union. This is done on a basis of institutionalism and isomorphism. In the empirical part, the thesis compares the Constitutive Act from the African Union and the Constitutive Treaty from UNASUR against the treaty of Nice in order to see what actual differences and similarities there are between the unions. Thereafter the empirical and the theoretical part are linked together with the purpose of answering the question in the best manner possible.