Theories of Regional Integration

Essay content topics on: *The phenomenon of regional integration *Region, Regionalisation and Regionalism *Two Waves of Regionalisation in Europe *Participatory Representation *Conclusions *References Regional integration schemes have multiplied in the past few years and the importance of regional groups in trade, money, and politics is increasing dramatically. Regional integration, however, is no new phenomenon. Examples of Staatenbunde, Bundesstaaten, Eidgenossenschaften, leagues, commonwealths, unions, associations, pacts, confederacies, councils and their like are spread throughout history. Many were established for defensive purposes, and not all of them were based on voluntary assent. The first major voluntary regional integration initiatives appeared in the XIX century. In the 1828, for example, Prussia established a customs union with Hesse-Darmstadt. This was followed successively by the Bavaria Wurtemberg Customs Union, the Middle German Commercial Union, the German Zollverein, the North German Tax Union, the German Monetary Union, and finally the German Reich. This wave of integration spilled over into what was to become Switzerland when integrated Swiss market and political union were created in 1848. It also brought economic and political union to Italy to the Risorgimento movement. Integration fever again struck Europe in the last decade of XIX century, when numerous and now long-forgotten projects for European Integration were concocted. In France, Count Paul de Leusse advocated the establishment of a customs union in agriculture between Germany and France, with a common tariffs bureau in Frankfurt ( See Paul e Leusse, “L’Union Douaniere Europeenne,” Revue d’Economie Politique 4 (1890), pp.393-401.). Other countries considered for membership were Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Spain. Half a century later, the idea of European integration was re-invented and the process of the merging European nation-states into one prosperous economy and stable polity began.