ABSTRACT
North American integration was intensely politicized at the outset, but then depoliticized almost immediately afterward, and it has remained depoliticized since. This chapter examines the argument that popular anti-regionalism deflected or constrained the potential for a "deepening" of regional integration in North America after North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It reviews some recent literature on public opinion in North America, with particular attention to the question of whether or not there is a substantial reservoir of latent opposition to regionalism, which could deflect or constrain further regional integration. The chapter considers the specific form that politicization of regional integration took during the NAFTA debates, and the depoliticization of these issues afterward. The United States, Canada and Mexico have single-member plurality (SMP) systems in which mainstream parties have few incentives to adopt clear-cut positions on issues about which very small minorities are passionate.
