İmpact of regional integration on national structures: The case of Mexico and Turkey

After many international crises in the middle of the 1980s, the neoliberal school was implemented to several open market economies. Many of them were developing nation states, with not so stable democratic institutions and national economies. One of the consequences of this free market scheme under the so-called globalization was the rise of regional integration or economic blocs that appeared economic on the surface, but as a matter of fact it implied several new implementations and transformations of societal and political structures. Two of such nations, Mexico and Turkey are going to be revised under the neoliberal reform they experienced in the 1990s and the consequences that they faced along with it. The hypothesis is that both countries have sought adherence to developed blocs pursuing economic profits more than cultural or social cohesion, resulting on negative impacts under the neoliberal globalization, and the lost opportunity of a genuine regional integration. Therefore the importance of this research, it will provide a comparative analysis of regional integration and its several impacts on the national structures, social life, politics, economics and international relations of both countries. The research will benefit from resources in Spanish, Turkish and English. Keywords: International relations, regional integration, Turkey, Mexico, European Union, NAFTA, neo-liberalism, free trade, globalization, international institutions.