The Dynamics of Regional Integration in the European Car Industry

Abstract

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Fordism experienced a golden age during which it consolidated its domination of the European automobile economy by structuring the region’s producer countries into a mosaic of autonomous units. In the Fordist regime, supply and demand interactions were being played out on a national basis. However, during the final 25 years of the twentieth century, these industrial systems’ national framework faded, to be replaced by a Europe-wide configuration. Nowhere has the regional integration process progressed as far as in Europe. The process of regionalization revolves on an interactive dynamic between the de facto integration process (supply- and demand-related economic factors), and the de juro integration (institutional changes). As such, the regional integration process is governed by the building of institutions, the changes in demand associated with market convergence, and the automobile firms’ strategies for structuring productive spaces.