Political Integration

Political Integration

When nations join with others in a trade or political bloc, they give up some national sovereignty. The European Union started out as a free trade zone and built considerable political integration over a period of several decades. But the EU is far from a unified state and far from a satisfactory Europe-wide democratic order, while substantial sovereignty still remains with the EU's member governments.

In a globalizing world, nations feel pressure to join trade and political pacts. Often, these international groupings erode national democracy while offering diminished accountability at the wider policy-making level. How, then, can trade pacts ...