Theoretical discussion on regional integration: EU-Asean perspective

Abstract

In recent years, there is much literature concerned with the study of regional organizations which usually discuss the deepening regional integration and the impact this will have on member states. Practically, many regional organizations attempt to reorganize their organizational structure to bemore legalistic, thereby mirroring the European Union (EU) as an underlying model in shaping effective regional integration. Nevertheless, this article argues that a region that consists mostly of developing or less developed countries is unlikely to develop closer regional integration or as legalistic as the EU. Especially in the case of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a wide range of different internal aspects—political, economic, and social circumstances—in eachindividual state make it difficult to render them sufficiently so as to constitute a union. With these arguments in view, the central emphasis in this article is to provide in depth theoretical discussion on the process of regional integration as well as its impact upon member states. The analysis will then concentrate on the comparison of developmental processes of regional integration of the EU and ASEAN.