A Comparative Analysis of the European Union (Eu) and the East African Community (Eac) Economic Integration Models: Lessons for Africa
Abstract
The study conducted a comparative analysis of the European Union (EU) and the East African Community (EAC) economic integration models to draw some lessons for Africa. This research study focused to explore the principal research problem of: How Europe with specific reference to EU succeeded in regional economic integration and why Africa with specific reference to EAC has not achieved full regional economic integration as compared to its counterpart EU. The interest arose out of the general observation that most regional integration (RI) in Africa are not in the fast track of full integration and have generally fallen short of effectively delivering on their mandates and goals for which they were created. Informed by the theory of Realist, the study hypothesized that: the EU integration model was caused by political good will and good economic policies of the member states that formed it; and that the economic integration of the EAC is militated by lack of political goodwill and poor economic policies of the member states forming it; and that the EU integration process offers the best model for EAC to emulate. Based on the evaluation and analysis of the findings, the study discovered that: what has caused the success model of EU integration are: political goodwill and coherent economic policies; it is also upheld that lack of political goodwill and poor economic policies are the major factors which have militated against the regional integration of the EAC; and the EU is upheld by the findings to be the best regional integration model EAC can learn from. Recommendations have been offered based on the researcher‟s analysis and observation of the findings of the study.
Publisher
University Of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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