The Political Economy of Region Formation (Analytical Tools)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose some basic analytical tools for studying the political economy of region formation, which is the combination of political and economic factors driving the process of regional cooperation forward. But since such an aim cannot be carried out in vacuum, it is discussed at first the main theories of international regimes, since it is widely acknowledged they inform the study of regional institutions and organizations. Then, the article argues in favour of a multi-causal framework to account for the formation and development of regions. Next, it shows how Constructivism gains weight with tensions in processes of region formation and highlights the role of academic debates and theories in processes of regionalism. And last, the paper puts forth three intimately related concepts –multilayered cooperation structures, overlapping networks and regional epistemic communities– which can be useful analytical tools to make the multi-causal framework operational. Multilayered cooperation structures can be defined as the increasingly diversified number of issues and problems which have led to regional cooperation and institutional arrangements of different scope; overlapping networks as the multiple connections and synergies that multilayered cooperation structures provoke and the regional epistemic communities as the policy communities, leaderships and elites –State, corporate, academic and societal– which are produced and reproduced in the multiple spaces, venues and discussions making up the intricate overlapping network.