ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the major events and processes which compose the history of the integration movement in Central America and to examine the goals and roles of the major actors. It argues that an appreciation of domestic politics is necessary to understand fully the forces which shaped the integration program and those forces which later caused it to collapse. The fundamental assumption of every integration theorist has been that the political elites of Central America were not interested in economic change. Regional integration theorists assumed that the politicos did not play a major role in the integration movement, "because the neo-functionalist dynamic could not operate without their indifference. In sum, Cochrane's hypothesis that the process of nation and state "building in Central America conflicted with the process of regional integration is faulty. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
