Abstract
With a view to developing a future research agenda in integration studies, this article derives five theoretical integration constellations from empirical cases with varying combinations of economic dependence and shared identification: symmetric and weak symmetric integration, two types of asymmetric integration and no integration. Asymmetric integration is defined as a situation in which either political/institutional integration is extensive amid a low degree of structural economic integration (Type I), or, there is extensive structural economic integration without any political/institutional integration (Type II). Type II, represented by Taiwan/People's Republic of China, appears theoretically the most interesting and is therefore examined in more detail for whether strong economic dependence by itself conceivably can be a sufficient background condition for political integration despite a lack of shared identification. Based on the analysis, several future research questions are developed. Do structural and institutional integration tend to converge over time, bringing about a more symmetric integration constellation? If that is so, which constellation of initial background conditions is more conducive to produce symmetric integration? Is approximate symmetricity between the background conditions shared identification and economic dependence a prerequisite for smooth integration?
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
