What is it about?
Economic integration between countries (like trade agreements) has become a hot political topic. What drives economic integration? Most observers assume that social actors like economic firms and exporters are the main drivers of ambitious economic integration. We show that this is not always the case: sometimes, state actors (like governments and officials) have their own motivations for economic integration.
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Why is it important?
Most observers assume that economic policy reflects 'demand' from social actors (like economic firms), and is 'supplied' by government. We show that this is not always true - governments can also 'demand' economic policy.
Perspectives
I really enjoyed the collaboration between John Leslie, Simon Le Quesne and myself that produced this article. It was a fun project. The case of economic integration between Australia and New Zealand has some important insights for how we think about the relationship between the state and society, since the usual relationship is reversed in this case. I hope the article can be useful for people working on economic integration in other parts of the world.
Matthew Castle
McGill University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Divergent Paths of State-Society Relations in European and Trans-Tasman Economic Integration, Journal of European Integration, July 2015, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/07036337.2015.1057819.
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