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SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW
AND THEORY OF
SUBORDINATE INTEGRATION:
IMPLICATIONS FOR LATIN
AMERICA, THE CARIBBEAN,
CANADA AND UNITED STATES
Aline Frambes-Buxeda*
INTRODUCTION
A fourth and practically new type of integration is taking shape in North
America, since the beginning of the 90s. Up to that time all “integration blocks”
had always been between countries with similar economic levels. That is, integration
schemes between highly industrialized countries: for instance the European
Economic Community and between industrialized socialist countries; or, on the
other hand instead, exclusively between underdeveloped third world countries such
as: LAFTA (Latin American Free Trade Agreement) or the Central American
Common Market.
On November 18, 1993, with the U.S. Congress approval of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a fourth type of integration came
into existence. 1 This integration between Canada, Mexico and the United States
* Professor, Department of Political Science and Sociology, Universidad Interamericana
de Puerto Rico, Recinto Metropolitano, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Director of Revista Homines, a social science journal published by Universidad
Interamericana. Coordinator of the “Núcleo de Investigación Social”,
(NIS).
This paper was presented at LASA—Latin American Studies Association XVIII
International Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
1
El País, “La aprobación del TLC impulsa el libre comercio mundial,” Madrid,
Monday, November 22, 1993, pp. 1, 11, 24 and 25.
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