‘Deep Integration’ in North America and the European Union: An Evaluation of Critical Perspectives.

Economic and political integration are features of North America and European politics. North America integration has evolved since the Free Trade Agreement through NAFTA to the Security and Prosperity Partnership. In post-war Europe, integration has developed primarily through the European Union. Critics have attacked both projects on a number of different levels. At their most extreme, critics oppose the very existence of integration. This paper examines this critique of North American integration in Canada and compares it with British criticism of European integration. The paper examines the critics and their arguments. The paper then seeks to account for differences in the criticism and the critics. The paper argues that in both settings the critics assert that integration threatens their country’s sovereignty and ultimately its continued existence. A major difference, however, is that Canadian critics are found predominantly on the political left. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, the view that the European Union threatens British sovereignty is most often found on the right, as for example in the platform of the UK Independence Party. The paper presents some preliminary explanations for this difference. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]