In the last three decades regional economic co-operation and integration attracted a great deal of interest in Southern Africa, as elsewhere in the Third World. Early attempts at regional integration in Southern Africa were generally characterised by poor and disappointing performance. Recent changes at both regional and international contexts suggest the need to rethink regional integration as part of an overall economic development strategy and as means to attain further political and security stability. This thesis examines the theory and practice of regional integration in developing countries during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Particular focus is directed at the theoretical and practical implications of different integration approaches for Southern Africa, as well as at the rationale for the revival of this development strategy in the 1990s. Integration schemes of various conceptual natures did not fulfil the expectations included either in the theoretical postulates or in the formal treaties. However, macroeconomic reforms centred in SAPs and their international development context as well as the post-apartheid regional context add new dimensions to regional co-operation and integration for development in the SAR. Among other things they imply a change in the emphasis from inward-looking to outward-looking integration strategies. By yielding the need for reconciling trade liberalisation and RECI this new dimension in integration poses a new challenge to both the contemporary integration approaches and the respective policy implications. Further research is required to determine the optimality of an "adjusted" integration approach, combining elements of the above perspectives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:263161 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Mondlane, Angelo Eduardo |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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