Introduction Integration Theory and the New Regionalism

Regional integration is a surprisingly widespread phenomenon in the developing world despite the fact that the (intraregional) economic gains of market integration seem to be low. Political science lacks a theory to explain the ups and downs of economic integration in developing regions. European integration theories rely implicitly on the assumption of strong intraregional economic interdependence as a driving force of regional integration. However, intraregional economic interdependence is generally low in developing regions, which implies that European integration theories cannot really be applied. In contrast, the new regionalism literature stresses the outward orientation and the extra-regional effects of regional integration, but it has not yet established a coherent integration theory based on that insight. Our book establishes such a theory. It begins with the assumption that the extra-regional effects of regional integration are more important for developing regions than the intraregional ones. The hypotheses, derived from this theory, are then tested at different cases of regional cooperation and defection in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Common Market of South America (MERCOSUR) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).