ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a framework for understanding the growth and changing character of regional governance. It explores how governance has evolved from an essentially state-led pre-occupation into a complex phenomenon that involves many other actors and that is characterized by inter-linkages between different levels of policy-making. The chapter argues that we are witnessing the transition from a single world of states towards a multiple world of states and regions. Regional integration can act both as a building block and as a stumbling stone towards a global social policy that makes globalization more fair'. Regional integration is a complex process of interactions between a group of neighbouring countries that can be driven by state interventions or by interactions between citizens. Regional integration thus comes in many varieties. On the one hand, there are the pure Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). Regional trade agreements have brought with them an increasing openness to global competition.
