Jerome Marston

Jerome Marston – Boston College, Political Science

Jerome Marston is a Master’s student at Boston College where he studies Comparative Politics in the Political Science Department. Jerome is originally from Colorado, where he graduated magna cum laude from Colorado State University. He was awarded a BA in Political Science with minors in German and Spanish. Jerome has as spent time studying and living abroad and is interested in South America, Western Europe, democratization, civil liberties, and human rights.

Are Small and Medium States Superior to Large?: The Role a State’s Size Plays in Regional Integration

Regional integration is often a precursor to peace, prosperity, and citizen liberties. It is for this reason that studying regional institutions is vital. This research paper examines the relationship between a state’s size and regional integration. Specifically, this paper empirically focuses on whether a particular size of state played a disproportionate role in establishing the EU and MERCOSUR. This study serves as a response to a debate, which has arisen within the literature. Expressly, whether it is small, medium, or large states that encourage regional integration and furthermore whether the former two in fact resist the latter’s attempts at integration. This research paper endeavors to resolve the debate by analyzing bounded time periods at the initial stages of regional integration in Western Europe and the Southern Cone, as well as several failed attempts at establishing institutions in these same regions. This paper draws two conclusions. First, of the independent variables analyzed, medium states are more likely to play a disproportionate role in the initial establishment of regional institutions. Second, small states are more likely to play a disproportionate role in the subsequent advancement of these same institutions.