Political integration is one component of international integration (described separately) and may be variously defined:
1. A political system is integrated to the extent that the minimal units (individual political actors) develop in the course of political interaction a pool of commonly accepted norms regarding political behaviour patterns legitimized by these norms.
2. International political integration involves a group of nations coming together to regularly make and implement binding public decisions by means of collective institutions and/or processes rather than by formally autonomous means. It implies that a number of governments begin to create and to use common resources to be committed in the pursuit of certain common objectives and that they do so by foregoing some of the factual attributes of sovereignty and decision-making autonomy (in contrast to more classical modes of cooperation such as alliances or international organizations). It can therefore be defined as the evolution over time of a collective decision-making system among nations.
3. Political integration generally implies a relationship of community, a feeling of identity and self-awareness in which the essence of the integration relationship is seen as collective action to promote mutual interests.
Four different types of political integration may be distinguished: institutional integration, policy integration, attitudinal integration, and the concept of a security community (in which there is reliable expectation of nonviolent relations).