Regional integration in the South Pacific: challenges for public governance

Abstract

Purpose of this article is to present and analyse regional integration in the South Pacific region, as well as to enumerate the potential challenges for public governance. The article is divided therefore into 5 sections, starting from introduction, where the author presents the idea of the research, gives definitions; second part deals with the South Pacific integration as an example of regionalisation, where it is necessary to present the characteristic features of the region, as well as its complex regional model of cooperation; third part enumerates obstacles for public governance gathered into categories of legal and extrajudicial challenges; forth part brings about some reason, why the Pacific microstates can be called as weak democracies; finally, fifth part forms the conclusion where the author summaries the whole research. The used methodology is the legal analysis, where the legal acts, as well as political declarations have been taken into account. Overall, regional integration in the South Pacific is weak because of a multitude of challenges for public governance. On the other hand, though, those challenges might become a motivation for the small island states to improve the level of regional governance.