Competitive alliances: Emerging sectoral struggles along the Mexico-United States border.

摘要

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) unites Canada, the United States and Mexico in a trading bloc it is an example of the ongoing changes occurring in the international economy (which is itself an aggregation of interests). These global changes lead to new interest alignments among various groups in society. These new interest alignments, coined "competitive alliances," alter the interplay between domestic development concerns and the international market-based system. This study examines the formation stage of crossborder competitive alliances addressing international surface transportation issues at the Mexico-United States border over a four-year period from 1992--1996 in order to analyze the interchange among domestic and international interests in the present stage of capitalist development. The study captures the initial response of interest groups to major regulatory changes brought about by international agreements such as the NAFTA.The work focuses on the practical and theoretical importance of competitive alliances in explaining development outcomes. It guages how changes in the international system affect domestic and binational relations over a specified period of time it provides a baseline for measuring the differences between an alliance's stated goals and its actions over the course of the NAFTA implementation phase and provides the basis for tracing changes in alliance goals and philosophies over the years.