Income Inequality in ASEAN: Perceptions on Regional Stability from Indonesia and the Philippines

ASEAN’s normative framework is underpinned by the principle of non-interference which generally relates to political and security issues. Another regional norm is that leaders attempt to formulate common responses to regional problems.4 In practice, ASEAN has a mandate to establish an equitable economic community post 2015. Thus this study examines if regional income inequality is considered a regional problem, and if so, is the concern significant enough to overcome. The study assesses how ASEAN, a regional organisation with limited authority–Cockburn concludes that ASEAN agreements ‘exhibit imprecision and low delegation of authority–interacts with national political and economic institutions.