Civil Society and North American Integration
Case Synopsis
Rather than view "civil society" groups as "inhibitors" of North American integration, the author argues that these progressive groups are advocating a different model of "integration from below." This model criticizes the neoliberal imperative for governments to deregulate and facilitate continental business at the expense of other values, such as human rights, the environment, and social justice.
Instead, the alternative view of integration, forged through solidarity within nationally-based groups and through transnational coalitions, suggests that citizens want regional integration to provide broader measures of prosperity and well-being. Without such broad-based prosperity, and without the support of civil society, Macdonald argues, North American integration may not be "socially sustainable," and its supporters should take notice of this risk.
The case surveys the development of civil society groups in opposition to the Canada-U.S. FTA and NAFTA; evaluates the labor and environmental "side accords" as vehicles for civil society oversight and critique; and suggests three factors which may move towards a more "constructive dialogue": the democratization of Mexico, cross-border organizing, and debates opened after 9/11 about "deepending" North American integration (known in Canada as the "Big Idea" debate, and since 2005 associated with the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP).
Educational Objectives
The role of civil society in trade agreements is contentious and germane to courses in both political science and international business. On the political science side, the new conventional wisdom in international relations theory after the Cold War has been that "non-state actors" have come to play a more active role in international agreements, and specifically in post-NAFTA trade agreements through labor and environmental side accords.
This case goes into detail regarding the reasons why civil society support has become politically important for governments as they consider FTAs and the Doha Round of WTO. It also suggests that both domestic and transnational factors affect the ability of civil society groups to organize and exert such influence.
On the international business side, as the author ntoes, civil society is more often that not viewed as an obstacle to efficiency. This case challenges such a view and raises questions about social and political sustainability of business-friendly government policies enabling greater continental economic integration.
Teaching Plan
Issues in the Case:
1. Globalization and Sovereignty:
While globalization may be viewed as purely a phenomenon of market integration across borders, it also has had implications for domestic economies, for national social and environmental policies, and for the daily lives of millions of people who feel they have little control over these processes via their political systems.
Civil society groups, as described by Macdonald, have become active in giving voice to these concerns about local and national control vs. the perception that globalization is advancing according to rules which favor business over citizens. Are nation-states "losing control" or abdicating sovereignty to corporations, or is there no choice for national governments other than adapting to the new flows of international trade, finance, and corporate competition? Who decides how that adaption is pursued?
2. The Role of Non-State Actors in International (Economic) Relations:
Along with foot-loose capital and transnational business firms, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also "gone global" to an impressive degree in the past two decades, taking advantage of and leveraging advances in communications technologies and, by extension, global media projection. At the same time, the ability of "contentious politics" groups and social movements advancing "global issues" (such as human rights, the environment, and labor rights) to shape politics - at the domestic level and at the level of international negotiations - have varied greatly, and these variations deserve study.
3. Regional Integration and the "Democratic Deficit":
North American integration has purposefully progressed down a very different path than Europe, which has pursued a more overtly political, institutionalized structure for suppranational policymaking which has come under fire as overly bureaucratic and elitist (as seen in the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty in June 2008). At the same time, Macdonald argues that even NAFTA's minimalist strategy has angered citizens as elitist and non-inclusive.
Thus, the case opens the way for a discussion of various models of regional integration (here the case of Asian "Open Regionalism" via APEC or ASEAN can be brought in), and the way governments have addressed (or not) the "democratic deficit" issue.
Migration, both legal and illegal, across borders in North America also opens up another dimension of the "democratic deficit": the contradiction between the limited, de jure nationally-inscribed notion of "citizenship" and the broader, de facto participation of migrants in local communities and their contribution to local and national economies on both sides of t
Questions for Discussion
1. In Spring 2008, NAFTA re-emerged as a hot-button political issue in the U.S. during the Democratic party presidential primaries in swing states such as Ohio and Texas. Meanwhile, anti-NAFTA farmers took to the streets in Mexico City in January 2008 to protest the phasing out of corn tariffs under NAFTA, and soon thereafter the leader of Canada's progressive National Democratic Part (NDP) appeared on the Lou Dobbs TV program on CNN to denounce the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). Is NAFTA in danger of being abrogated/repealed, or is this sign of public opposition likely to be countered by other actors (business support, e.g.)?
2. Consider the labor movements in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. In what ways do these groups share a political agenda, and in what ways might their interests be antagonistic? Think about the structure of their respective economics, the sectors which are most heavily unionized, and the relative political influence of organized labor in each country.
3. Imagine you are a leader of an NGO concerned with wage and working conditions in Mexican maguiladora (assembly) plants on the U.S.-Mexican border. What strategies might you use to bring this issue to public attention, and what policies might you target for change on the national, trinational, and global level? What political and NGO allies might you pursue? (Students can repeat this exercise replacing labor with environmental NGO.)
4. Do the NAFTA side accords advance labor and environmental norms, or is their limited institutional mandate (signatory states agree to enforce their own laws, not trinational standards) too great an obstacle? Should labor and environmental activists lobby for the addition of similar side accords on other FTAs negotiated by the U.S. as a first step towards broader norm enforcement, or does such support undermine their cause?
Useful Links from PNA
- Civil Society in Mexico and Regionalisation: A Framework for Analysis on Transborder Civic Activism
- Digital Democracy: How the American and Hong Kong Civil Societies Use New Media to Change Politics
- Labor in North American Integration: Issues, Interests and Actors
- Civil Society Participation in Regional Integration Processes
- Building Civil Society Among Indigenous Migrants
- Citizen complaints reflect environment's decline
- Crossborder Organizing to Save the Colorado River Delta
- Trade and Environment in North America
- Protecting Labour Rights through Trade Agreements: An Analytical Guide
- Taking a Fresh Look at North American Integration: Mapping the New North American Reality
Suggested Bibliography
Ayres, Jeffrey and Laura Macdonald (2007). "Deep Integration and Shallow Governance: The Limits to Civil Society Engagement in North America." Policy and Society. 25(6): 23-42.
Graubart, Jonathan (2008). Legalizing Transnational Activism: The Struggle to Gain Social Change from NAFTA's Citizen Petitions. University Partk, PA: Penn State University Press.
Keck, Margaret E. and Kathryn Sikkink (1998). Activists Beyond Borders: Transnational Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Palmer, Doug (2008). "Clinton, Obama Threat to End NAFTA Alarms Business," Reuters Online (February 27), available from http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2724169820080227.
Pastor, Robert (2001). Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics.
Rosenberg, Mica (2008). "Mexican Farmers Stage Protests Over U.S. Imports," Reuters Online (January 31), available from http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNew/idUSN3134507120080201.
Smith, Robert Courtney (2005). Mexican New York: The Transnational Lives of Immigrants. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Wapner, Paul (1995). "Politics Beyond the State: Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics," World Politics 47(3) April: 311-40.
Wise, Timothy A., Hilda Salaza, and Laura Carlsen, eds. (2003). Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration and Popular Resistance in Mexico. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.
Suggested Web Resources
Common Frontiers Canada: http://www.commonfrontiers.ca.
New Democratic Party (NDP, Canada): http://www.ndp.ca/continentalintegration.
North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC): http://www.cec.org/home/index.cfm?varlan=english.
Public Citizen, Global Trade Watch, NAFTA: http://www.citizen.org/trade/nafta/.
Red Mexicana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio (RMLAC): http://www.rmalc.org.mx/index.shtml
Case Study from: Study Group on "Mapping the New North American Reality"
In cooperation with the Government of Quebec, the Government of Canada, the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), and HEC-Montreal, Montreal November 2003.
Published in: Mapping the New North American Reality, IRPP Working Paper Series 2004-09c.
Note: PNA is committed to encouraging intelligent discourse among our members. Comments are moderated by PNA, in accordance with the PNA Comment Policy. PNA does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted below.
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