ABSTRACT
This book has dealt with regionalization, or region-building, in a number of ways. At one level, our comparative research has focused on institution-building within the context of a larger project of socio-political development (i.e. transformation). Since the 1980s, regionalization has proceeded hand in hand with attempts at administrative decentralization – also seen as a prerequisite of state modernization within a context of global economic competition. At another level, our case studies have also indicated how general governance paradigms associated with the NR and the requirements of participation in political and economic associations of global importance (EU, NAFTA and to an extent Mercosur) have been translated locally in terms of territorial development polices. According to the tenets of New Regionalism, empowerment, access to resources, participation and the articulation of individual and group interests are as important as economic efficiency. This set of objectives has also been one of the stated goals of regionalist advocates in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, and as has been discussed in several contributions to this book, external political pressure has been a central element in the regionalization process in which core-periphery relationships are clearly evident.
