Interregional Competition - Enhancing Exchanges or Destabilizing the World?

• Main Author: Pierre M. Chabal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Danubius University 2012-02-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Danubius: Oeconomica
• Subjects: regionalism; sector-to-sector confrontation; cultu ralism; ‘proliferation’ of regions
• Online Access: http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/oeconomica/article/view/1000/1084

The paper deals with the idea of the world continuous transformation to the presentregionalism. This is why the analysis is focused onthe regional emergence as a multi-faceted concept.Another objective of the paper is the delimitationbetween the global political terms and the regionalpolicy sectors. The first conclusion of the paper is that the regions do not fight each other withmilitary weapons, but with economic, monetary and trading instruments used within an encompassinginstitutional and legal framework. This transposition may also apply to political and cultural issues.Economists use competition from an ideal-typical angle and, again, a belief in the market forces, thehidden hand, and the ensuing equilibrium between offer and demand. However, in political science,settlement or equilibrium does not really apply. For a political scientist, competition refers to powergames that cannot result in lasting, uncontested dominationby onebut consist in shifting dynamismsof power/dominationamong all.