ABSTRACT
It is an extraordinary political phenomenon that every emerging country feels the attractiveness of regional cooperation; even the most authoritarian new powers want to build up regional organisations: the Eurasian Economic Community and the EEU, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). They are very different from one other but they share some common features: an authoritarian internal decision-making process, which does not coincide with multilateral rules and procedures; the missing role of democratic public opinion; the economic and political dependence on the leading country. However, several internal and external features make a difference evident from the traditional spheres of influences, the legacy of the 19th century.
