Comparative Regional Integration Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Comparative regionalism refers to studies that examine similarities and differences among regional groupings in the global system to understand the underlying causes, processes, and effects of regional integration. Most comparative integration studies apply the frameworks of politics, economics, and law to analyze the context of regionalism and its effects on states and regions as a whole, but sociological studies of regionalism also abound.

Simplified, there are two main waves of comparative regionalist scholarship. The first wave took place in the 1960s and was dominated by neofunctionalist research. While basic neofunctionalist assumptions regarding processes of spillover and supranational entrepreneurship were primarily derived from detailed empirical studies of the major institutions of the European communities (EC), the search for a generalizable explanation of integration led scholars to apply the theory to other regions. Ernst Haas examined integration in the Soviet Bloc, and among Arab states and the Nordic countries, Haas and Philippe Schmitter juxtaposed integration processes in Europe and Latin America, and Joseph Nye (1968, 1971) compared integration in East Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. However, applications of European-derived integration theories outside Europe were rarely productive. Integration in other regions appeared to advance at a far slower pace than in western Europe. This led scholars to focus on factors that disposed Europe, especially favorably, for integration. Particular features of European integration, such as the fact that all members of the EC were liberal democracies with high levels of industrial and economic development, broadly compatible elite values, and close ties of military alliance, were elevated to necessary background conditions for integration. The formulation of necessary background factors highlighted the theory’s limited scope. Neofunctionalism was geared toward explaining integration among a group of advanced liberal industrial economies in a geopolitical context of bipolarity and as such had limited applicability outside western Europe. As a result, by the 1970s, scholars had largely abandoned comparative integration studies in favor of the isolated study of the EC and its institutions.

Comparative regional integration studies have undergone a significant revival in the past fifteen years. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw an upsurge in regionalism on a global scale. New economic groupings, such as APEC, Mercosur, and NAFTA, were born while existing regional groupings, such as the European Union (EU), deepened their institutional infrastructure and expanded their geographic reach. This reinvigoration of regionalism gave rise to a second wave of scholarship dedicated to comparative analysis. While scholarship in the 1960s focused on understanding the contexts that facilitated the creation and subsequent consolidation of regional institutions, the new regionalism agenda concentrates more sharply on both the causes and effects of regionalism and on accounting for variation in institutional structures across regions. Many new regionalism studies have an economic focus, using new trade theories to understand the sources of regionalism. The main emphasis is on the relationship of regionalization to processes of globalization, with some studies depicting regionalization as a defensive or semiprotectionist response to the challenge of growing competitive pressures from global markets, whereas others view regionalism as a stepping-stone to full integration into the global economy. Alternatively, some international relations scholars, such as Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver (2003), concentrate instead on the regionalization of security, reviving the concept of regional security communities to analyze patterns of regionalism.

Defining Regions And Integration

It is a common complaint that the comparative study of regional integration is hampered by a lack of consensus on how to define the fundamentals of comparison. Some regard the term region as connoting a geographically circumscribed area, while others focus on the presence of a common culture, language, or shared religion. Yet others hold that shared political institutions and practices define a region. Agreement is equally elusive when it comes to defining integration. What does it mean to say that a region is integrating or has been integrated? Does integration refer to the creation of institutions for joint decision-making at the transnational level, to the creation of a transnational economy, or a combination of the two? Must integration involve a change in social attitudes, such as a shift in loyalties away from the nation-state toward the regional level? It is argued that the fact that analysts work with different conceptions of both region and integration makes it difficult to compare their findings. Yet, as is often the case, such difficulties are easily exaggerated. By and large, researchers can work with different definitions of integration and still draw valuable insights from each other’s work in relation to particular dimensions of integration understood as specific kinds of economic, political or social interactions.

Comparative Regionalization And The EU

Many scholars also worry that despite a revival of comparative studies, the field of regional integration studies remains sharply divided between studies of the EU and regionalism in the rest of the world. This perceived fragmentation is seemingly a product of the longer trajectory and greater depth of integration in Europe compared with elsewhere. Yet, the difficulty of comparing the EU to other regional schemes can be relatively easily overcome by selecting specific dimensions on which to compare cooperation within Europe to cooperation in other regions. By abandoning the goal of universal grand theories of integration, we can focus on developing valid midrange theories based on observations of particular processes and outcomes. As for understanding the overall trajectory of Europe integration, comparative studies also may be facilitated by conceptualizing the EU as an emergent polity rather than as a regional organization. This was the approach favored by Karl Deutsch and his colleagues. They suggested that international political unification could be studied alongside the growth of nation-states. Deutsch and his associates drew specifically on the experiences of multinational empires like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and federal nation-states like Switzerland to analyze integration processes. Other candidates for comparison with the EU include regional trade and currency unions like the German Zollverein or the United Dutch Provinces, which both evolved into single polities, or the United States, which began as a loose confederation but eventually developed into a federation.

Bibliography:

Buzan, Barry, and Ole Wæver. Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Deutsch, Karl W., Sidney A. Burrell, Robert A. Kann, Maurice Lee Jr, Martin Lichterman, Raymond E. Lindgren, Francis L. Loewenheim, and Richard W.Van Wagenen. Political Community and the North Atlantic Area: International Organization in the Light of Historical Experience. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968.
Etzioni, Amitai. Political Unification: A Comparative Study of Leaders and Forces. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965.
Gamble, Andrew, and Anthony Payne, eds. Regionalism and World Order. New York: St. Martin’s, 1996.
Haas, Ernst, and Philippe Schmitter. “Economic and Differential Patterns of Political Integration: Projections about Unity in Latin America.” International Organization 18 (Autumn 1964): 705–737.
Laursen, Finn, ed. Comparative Regional Integration. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2005.
Mansfield, Edward D., and Helen V. Milner. The Political Economy of Regionalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Nye, Joseph S. “Comparative Regional Integration: Concepts and Measurement.” International Organization 22, 4 (1968): 855–880.
Peace in Parts: Integration and Conflict in Regional Organization. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971.

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