Abstract
What is the status of the European Union as a model for regional integration after the creation, revival or development of the several regional integration agreements in the American continent in the 1990s? While it held the field to itself, the European Union could safely be described as the most advanced experiment in successful regional integration. Now that NAFTA, Mercosur, the Central American Common Market (CACM), the Andean Community, and possibly a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), have all emerged to challenge the Eurocentric bias of regionalist studies, is the European Union a one-off case or a primus inter pares?
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Notes
Thus, the comparative work in EU integration studies, dominated by the debate between intergovernmentalists and neofunctionalists, has looked at federal states, mainly the United States, Germany, Belgium rather than at other regions. See Fritz W. Scharpf, “The Joint-Decision Trap: Lessons from German Federalism and European Integration,” Public Administration 61 (1998), 239–78;
Kalypso Nocolaidis and Robert Howse (eds), The Federal Vision: Legitimacy and Levels of Governance in the US and the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). Explanations for regional integration in other areas draw mainly from the International Relations literature on economic interdependence and globalisation.
See Andrew Hurrell, “Regionalism in Theoretical Perspective,” in Andrew Hurrell and Louise Fawcett (eds), Regionalism in World Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 37–73;
Marianne H. Marchand, Morten Boas and Timothy M. Shaw (1999), “The Political Economy of New Regionalisms,” Third World Quarterly 20(5), 897–910.
Miles Kahler, Regional Futures and Transatlantic Economic Relations (New York: The Council on Foreign Relations Press for the European Community Studies Association, 1995), p. 13.
Claudia Sánchez Bajo, “The European Union and Mercosur: a Case of Inter-Regionalism,” Third World Quarterly 20: 5 (1999), 933 .
Karl W. Deutsch, Political Community and the North Atlantic Area: International Organization in the Light of Historical Experience (New York: Greenwood, 1969).
Instituto de Relaciones Europa-Latin América [IRELA], El Mercado único europeo y su impacto en América Latina (Madrid, 1993).
Pascal Lamy, “Regionalism and multilateralism in Latin America,” Speech delivered to the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paolo, July 10 2001. Available at http://europa.eu.int
Mark A. Pollack and Gregory C. Shaffer (eds), “Introduction,” Transatlantic Governance in the Global Economy (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), p. 15.
The phrase is from Jean Grugel and Wil Hout, Regionalism across the North-South Divide: State Strategies and Globalization (London: Routledge, 1999).
In the event, Mexico went on to sign bilateral agreements with Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, and argued that it awaited a solution within the OECD negotiations for a Multilateral Investment Agreement. See Jacques Lecomte, “Las relaciones entre la Unión Europea y México: tres generaciones de acuerdos de cooperación,” in IRELA, La Unión Europea y México (1997), p. 25.
See Eric Stein, “International Integration and Democracy: No Love at First Sight,” American Journal of International Law 95 (3) (2001), 489–534.
Abigail Innes, “Party Competition in Postcommunist Europe: The Great Electoral Lottery,” Comparative Politics 35 (1) (2002), 85–104.
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© 2005 Lorena Ruano
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Ruano, L. (2005). The European Union and Regional Integration in the Americas. In: Fawcett, L., Serrano, M. (eds) Regionalism and Governance in the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523029_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523029_3
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