However, the effects of government-business relations on
national policy choices with regard to liberalization and integration
are mixed, depending on whether outward-looking or inwardfocused
business interests have the ear of ruling elites. Although civil
society and labor groups have grown more vocal in articulating their
concerns over economic liberalization and regional integration in the
slowly expanding democratic space in the region
regional integration
processes continue to be shaped and managed by ruling elites whose
responses to integration will be filtered both by external competitive
forces and dominant domestic interests and priorities. The precise
configuration of domestic interests either favoring or resisting regional
liberalization and integration will also vary across Southeast Asia, given
the region’s inherent diversity in terms of state-society relations, level
of development and even political system. This means that ASEAN