TITLE:
Social, Political and Economic Globalization in the East African Community (2006-2023): Trends, Convergence and the Complementary Lens of Neo-Functionalism and Transformationalism
AUTHORS:
Alexis Nzikobanyanka, Léonidas Ndayizeye, Pacific Makuta Mwambusa, Emmanuel Kwizera, Jean Baptiste Bukuru
KEYWORDS:
Globalization, East African Community, Convergence, Neo-Functionalism, Transformationalism, Panel Data
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Financial Risk Management,
Vol.15 No.4,
November
11,
2026
ABSTRACT: This paper assesses the co-evolution, structure, and path of convergence of globalization in the East African Community (EAC) based on empirical data spanning 2006-2023. This timeline is significant because there is a paucity of empirical findings on how the economic, social, and political facets of globalization evolve in the EAC simultaneously. Included within this timeline are a robust, deepened EAC Customs Union, the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2023, and current trends in geo-economic fragmentation on the continent. The paper relies on secondary panel data for Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda—a purposive subgroup of EAC member states selected for data availability and comparability from the Global Economy.com database and employs descriptive trend analysis, compound annual growth rate (CAGR), Pearson correlation, cross-country sigma and beta-convergence tests, and fixed-effects panel estimation. Overall, globalization evolved slowly (the five-country mean of the overall index rose from 43.5 in 2006 to 49.0 in 2023, with a pooled period mean of 49.0), albeit with a heterogeneous trajectory. While political globalization was dominant (mean, 67.8), social globalization was relatively weak (mean, 38.0). Rwanda grew fastest in globalization (CAGR, 1.76%), while Tanzania stagnated (CAGR, −0.04%). Still, cross-country sigma-convergence was high with a 40% decline in inter-country variation; beta-convergence was statistically significant (β = −0.084, p = 0.045), although this estimate rests on only five country-level observations and is read as suggestive. A strong co-movement of the three facets (r = 0.76 - 0.89) emerged, and the three dimensions enter the composite with near-equal construction weights (33% - 34% each). Based on neo-functionalism and transformationalism as interpretive lenses, the paper concludes that the results for the five study countries are consistent with convergence toward a state of politically open, economically shallow, and socially underperforming integration and recommends economization of social integration.