Departing from an analysis of the Liberal Intergovernmentalism-Supranational Governance debate on the occurrence of regional integration, this paper proposes the reconsideration of the concept of transnational activity to include informational and ideational inputs by transnational actors on policy alternatives as sources of regional integration. As currently structured both theories overlook this important aspect: the former, by neglecting any role to transnational actors in integration between countries beyond their participation in the setting of national preferences at the domestic level, and the latter, by privileging the analysis of supranational organisations as suppliers of joint policies over transnational actors as their demanders. By examining the European and North American experiences on integration, this paper puts forward the role that transnational actors, i.e. individuals, firms, and interest groups, have played on the formulation, promotion and implementation of joint policy-making initiatives. It claims that through their engagement with governmental and supranational actors, they have indeed influenced the pace and direction of integration processes. Finally, it aims to determine which of these approaches provides a better basis to account for and operationalise this concept and attempts to determine whether these approaches to regional integration can be applied to non-European processes of regional integration.
