01639pab a2200169 454500008004000000100002000040245014500060260000900205300001300214362000800227520105000235650001901285773003401304909001001338999001701348952010401365180718b1999   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aHooghe, Liesbet  aSupranational activists or intergovernmental agents?: explaining the orientations of senior commission officials toward European integration  c1999  ap.435-63  aJun  aSince the inception of the European Community (EC) European Union (EU), the European Commission has been the engine of European integration, but studies have failed to account for how office holders in the commission conceive authority in the EU. The author explains variation in supranationalist and intergovernmentalist views among top commission officials using 140 interviews and 106 mail questionnaires undertaken between July 1995 and May 1997. Officials' views are greatly influenced by prior state career and previous political socialization, with former state employees and nationals of large, unitary states leaning to intergovernmentalism and those without former state experience and from federal systems to supranationalism. Partial confirmation of a principal-agent logic is found in that officials in powerful commission services favor supranationalism only if prior socialization predisposes them to such views. Thus, the results support socialization theory, but they are inconclusive for principal-agent arguments. - Reproduced  aEuropean union  aComparative Political Studies  a44037  c44037d44037  00104070aIIPAbIIPAd2018-07-19hVolume no: 32, Issue no: 4pAR44443r2018-07-19w2018-07-19yAR