Varieties of regional economic institutionalization: Europe, North America, and East Asia compared

This study examines why different levels of economic institutional arrangements have been formed across three major economic regions: Europe, North America, and East Asia. We can identify three similarities in regional economic institutionalization across the three regions: (1) External pressures and challenges such as wars, financial crises, and severe region-wide economic downturns served as catalytic events for starting negotiations for a regional economic project; (2) Constructing a regional institution was a counterbalancing action vis-à-vis other major powers or regions; (3) Economic interests along with policy needs led to an interstate consensus on building a regional economic institution. In spite of these similarities, widely different institutional forms were produced across the three regions. My research illustrates that although power relations and economic interests have been at work, the policy ideas of key political actors who participated in major decisions on regional projects were the major determinants of divergent institutional arrangements across the three regions. In short, an idea-based approach better explains the varieties of regional economic institutionalization than power-based and interest-based ones, which are grounded in rational-functionalist logic