Open AccessEmbedding trade liberalisation in social policy: a research agenda on social regionalism and the Global South
Author(s) -
Diamond Ashiagbor
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
northern ireland legal quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2514-4936
pISSN - 0029-3105
DOI - 10.53386/nilq.v65i3.216
Subject(s) - regionalism (politics) , liberalization , globalization , european union , regional integration , social citizenship , economic integration , economics , single market , political science , international trade , economic system , citizenship , political economy , politics , market economy , democracy , law
Underpinning this article is the proposition that regional integration with a social dimension has the potential to engender a more equitable pattern of globalisation. The empirical focus of the article is on the extent to which the insights of ‘embedded liberalism’ associated with regional economic integration between the industrialised nations of the European Union (EU) can be applied to regional economic integration within sub-Saharan Africa. The article contends that EU market liberalisation has been embedded within labour market institutions and institutions of social citizenship at the domestic level. These have served as social stabilisers to counter the far-reaching effects of the internal market and global trade. Less industrialised nations have never enjoyed adjustment mechanisms of this sort, raising the question for this article, and for further research: in which legal and institutional structures can these nascent forms of market integration at regional and sub-regional level be embedded?