Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?

Regional integration in Latin America has experienced different periods of politicization. The most recent goes back to the 2000s and is related to the domestic political changes resulting from the so-called ‘left turn’ which sought alternative economic and development policies to neoliberalism as t...

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Autor: Bianculli, Andrea C.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/44140
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/44140
http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v8i1.2598
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Civil society
European Union
External agenda
Latin America
MERCOSUR
Polarization
Politicization
Regional cooperation
Trade negotiations
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spelling Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?Bianculli, Andrea C.Civil societyEuropean UnionExternal agendaLatin AmericaMERCOSURPolarizationPoliticizationRegional cooperationTrade negotiationsRegional integration in Latin America has experienced different periods of politicization. The most recent goes back to the 2000s and is related to the domestic political changes resulting from the so-called ‘left turn’ which sought alternative economic and development policies to neoliberalism as the state regained centrality. These transformations led to a broad process of politicization of regionalism which changed the terms of the debate surrounding whether regional integration and free trade are the only way for these countries to integrate regionally and internationally. Analyses have thus underscored the postliberal character of this phase of regionalism as reflected in the greater weight of social and political agendas at the expense of economic and trade issues. The Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) was no exception to this trend. However, in 2010 the bloc rather surprisingly agreed to relaunch negotiations with the European Union (EU). Why did MERCOSUR decide to resume these negotiations—stalled since 2004—in a context of high politicization of regional integration? This article argues that internal politicization did not lead to a paralysis of the international agenda. Moreover, internal politicization, coupled with external pressures and the demand for group-to-group negotiations by the EU, drove and supported the conduct of international negotiations. In so doing, this article also contests the idea that after the 2000s, MERCOSUR moved inexorably towards a postliberal model, thus rejecting any trade component. Findings suggest that these accounts may have overemphasized change and underestimated continuities in regional integration dynamics as the case of the external agenda shows.Cogitatio Press202020202020info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/44140http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v8i1.2598reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)InglésPolitics and Governance. 2020 Mar 31;8(1):254-65This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:recercat.cat:10230/441402026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?
title Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?
spellingShingle Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?
Bianculli, Andrea C.
Civil society
European Union
External agenda
Latin America
MERCOSUR
Polarization
Politicization
Regional cooperation
Trade negotiations
title_short Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?
title_full Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?
title_fullStr Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?
title_full_unstemmed Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?
title_sort Politicization and regional integration in Latin America: implications for EU–MERCOSUR negotiations?
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Bianculli, Andrea C.
author Bianculli, Andrea C.
author_facet Bianculli, Andrea C.
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Civil society
European Union
External agenda
Latin America
MERCOSUR
Polarization
Politicization
Regional cooperation
Trade negotiations
topic Civil society
European Union
External agenda
Latin America
MERCOSUR
Polarization
Politicization
Regional cooperation
Trade negotiations
description Regional integration in Latin America has experienced different periods of politicization. The most recent goes back to the 2000s and is related to the domestic political changes resulting from the so-called ‘left turn’ which sought alternative economic and development policies to neoliberalism as the state regained centrality. These transformations led to a broad process of politicization of regionalism which changed the terms of the debate surrounding whether regional integration and free trade are the only way for these countries to integrate regionally and internationally. Analyses have thus underscored the postliberal character of this phase of regionalism as reflected in the greater weight of social and political agendas at the expense of economic and trade issues. The Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) was no exception to this trend. However, in 2010 the bloc rather surprisingly agreed to relaunch negotiations with the European Union (EU). Why did MERCOSUR decide to resume these negotiations—stalled since 2004—in a context of high politicization of regional integration? This article argues that internal politicization did not lead to a paralysis of the international agenda. Moreover, internal politicization, coupled with external pressures and the demand for group-to-group negotiations by the EU, drove and supported the conduct of international negotiations. In so doing, this article also contests the idea that after the 2000s, MERCOSUR moved inexorably towards a postliberal model, thus rejecting any trade component. Findings suggest that these accounts may have overemphasized change and underestimated continuities in regional integration dynamics as the case of the external agenda shows.
publishDate 2020
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2020
2020
2020
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10230/44140
http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v8i1.2598
url http://hdl.handle.net/10230/44140
http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v8i1.2598
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Politics and Governance. 2020 Mar 31;8(1):254-65
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Cogitatio Press
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Cogitatio Press
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
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