European Union Integration Theory and Its Applicability to the ECOWAS Regional Integration Experience: An Analytical Comparison

This doctoral study critically examines the applicability of European Union integration theory to the regional integration experience of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), developing an original analytical comparison that generates theoretically grounded lessons and limitations from the European integration experiment for the West African context. The tendency to use EU integration theory as a universal benchmark against which African regional organisations are evaluated has been critiqued as theoretically imperialist, yet the comparative value of EU integration theory for Africa has not been systematically interrogated in a full-length doctoral study. Drawing on neofunctionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism, constructivism, and post-colonial integration theory, this study develops an original Contextualised Comparativism methodology for cross-regional integration theory application. Empirical evidence is generated through structured comparative analysis of integration milestones, institutional design choices, and governance outcomes in the EU (1957-2024) and ECOWAS (1975-2024), supplemented by elite interviews with ECOWAS Commission officials, Nigerian foreign ministry ECOWAS desk officers, and integration theory scholars from European, Nigerian, and broader African academic institutions. The study generates original theoretical findings on which EU integration mechanisms (functional spillover, supranational institutionalisation, norm socialisation) have partial explanatory value for ECOWAS and which are analytically inapplicable. Contributions include the Contextualised Comparativism framework and the most theoretically comprehensive EU-ECOWAS comparison in the current scholarly literature. Keywords: EU integration theory, ECOWAS, regional integration comparison, neofunctionalism, post-colonial integration.