Fairbrother, Malcolm, Long, Tom and Pérez-Armendáriz, Clarisa (2022) Issue-areas, sovereignty costs, and North Americans’ attitudes towards regional cooperation. Global Studies Quarterly, 2 (1). ksac011. doi:10.1093/isagsq/ksac011 ISSN 2634-3797.

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Abstract

Studies of public opinion toward regionalism tend to rely on questions regarding trade integration and specific regional organizations. This narrow focus overlooks dimensions of regionalism that sit at the heart of international relations research on regions today. Instead, we argue that research should explore public preferences with respect to regional cooperation in different issue-areas. We find that people's views of regional cooperation in North America diverge from their attitudes toward trade integration alone. Using data from Rethinking North America, an untapped public opinion survey conducted in Mexico, Canada, and the United States in 2013, we show that although country-level attitudes toward trade integration in North America were similar, preferences for regional cooperation varied by country depending on the issue at hand. We propose that attitudes are shaped by citizens’ perceptions of the asymmetric patterns of national-level benefits and vulnerabilities created by regional cooperation. Generally, respondents favor cooperation where their state stands to gain greater capacity benefits and oppose it where cooperation imposes greater costs on national autonomy. For policymakers, this multifaceted approach to regionalism sheds light on areas where public preferences for regional cooperation might converge. Future research that disaggregates various aspects of support for regional cooperation should help integrate the study of public opinion with “new” and comparative regional approaches that emphasize the aspects of regionalism beyond trade and formal institutions.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	J Political Science > JZ International relations
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Regionalism (International organization), International relations, North America -- Economic integration, North America -- Economic policy
Journal or Publication Title:	Global Studies Quarterly
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	2634-3797
Official Date:	January 2022
Dates:	Date Event 10 March 2022 Available January 2022 Published 25 January 2022 Accepted
Volume:	2
Number:	1
Article Number:	ksac011
DOI:	10.1093/isagsq/ksac011
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)
Description:	This publication emerged from workshops of the Robert A. Pastor North American Research Initiative, supported by American University, Washington, DC.
Date of first compliant deposit:	28 January 2022
Date of first compliant Open Access:	11 March 2022
Related URLs:	Publisher

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