ABSTRACT

This chapter suggests the ways in which regionalisms have been 'made' by different sort of actors, unfolding processes and narratives at different but interrelated policy levels. It explores the impacts of European Union (EU) transatlantic regionalism on democratization dynamics in national and local policy arenas, and particularly, on the responses from civil society circles critical of economic liberalization emphasis on regionalism. The chapter considers that regionalisms might express relationships of mutual co-determination in which democratization dynamics, especially processes of institutional consolidation together with civil society activism in national and local arenas, and are playing an important role too. It explores the associated political implications that securing an access platform for European goods and services to the North American market under a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trade regime. Through a bilateral free trade agreement with Mexico has had on die ongoing democratic consolidation of the latter country.