Power and Regionalism in Latin America

Laura Gómez-Mera

Description

In Power and Regionalism in Latin America: The Politics of MERCOSUR, Laura Gómez-Mera examines the erratic patterns of regional economic cooperation in the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), a political-economic agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and, recently, Venezuela that comprises the world’s fourth-largest regional trade bloc. Despite a promising start in the early 1990s, MERCOSUR has had a tumultuous and conflict-ridden history. Yet it has survived, expanding in membership and institutional scope. What explains its survival, given a seemingly contradictory mix of conflict and cooperation?

Through detailed empirical analyses of several key trade disputes between the bloc’s two main partners, Argentina and Brazil, Gómez-Mera proposes an explanation that emphasizes the tension between and interplay of two sets of factors: power asymmetries within and beyond the region, and domestic-level politics. Member states share a common interest in preserving MERCOSUR as a vehicle for increasing the region’s leverage in external negotiations. Gómez-Mera argues that while external vulnerability and overlapping power asymmetries have provided strong and consistent incentives for regional cooperation in the Southern Cone, the impact of these systemic forces on regional outcomes also has been crucially mediated by domestic political dynamics in the bloc’s two main partners, Argentina and Brazil. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, the unequal distribution of power within the bloc has had a positive effect on the sustainability of cooperation. Despite Brazil’s reluctance to adopt a more active leadership role in the process of integration, its offensive strategic interests in the region have contributed to the durability of institutionalized collaboration. However, as Gómez-Mera demonstrates, the tension between Brazil’s global and regional power aspirations has also added significantly to the bloc’s ineffectiveness.

Sujets

• Economic Policy
• Public Policy
• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Histoire
• América del Sur
• Argentina
• South America
• Latin America
• Brazil
• International
• Paraguay
• Venezuela
• Uruguay
• Argentine

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268080747
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

P O W E R A N D R E G I O N A L I S M I N L AT I N A M E R I C A

R E C E N T T I T L E S F RO M T H E H E L E N K E L L O G G I N S T I T U T E F O R I N T E R N AT I O N A L S T U D I E S

Scott Mainwaring,series editor

he University of Notre Dame Press gratefully tanks te Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies for its support in te publication of titles in tis series.

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P O W E R A N D R E G I O N A L I S M I N L AT I N A M E R I C A

T h e P o l i t i c s o f M E R C O S U R

L au r a G ó m e z - m e r a

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

∞

Copyright © 2013 by the University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Gómez Mera, Maria Laura, 1975– Power and regionalism in Latin America : the politics of MERCOSUR / Laura GómezMera. pages cm. — (From the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN13: 9780268029852 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN10: 0268029857 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN: 9780268080747 (web pdf) 1. Southern Cone of South America—Economic integration 2. MERCOSUR (Organization) 3. South America—Economic integration. I. Title. HC167.S67G66 2013 337.1'8—dc23 2013000466

durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

To my parents, Isabel and Juan

CONTENTS

 List of Tables  List of Figures  List of Abbreviations  Acknowledgments O N E Introduction T W O Patterns of Conflict and Cooperation in te Soutern Cone T H R E E Systemic Incentives, Domestic Constraints, and Regional Cooperation: A Neoclassical Realist Approac F O U R he Automobile Sector Crisis F I V E he Footwear Industry Dispute S I X Failure to Relaunc: he  Conflict S E V E N A Narrow Escape: Toward a More Flexible MERCOSUR E I G H T Conclusions: Power, Domestic Politics, and Regional Order  Appendix A. Interviews  Appendix B. Cronology of Patterns of Cooperation and Conflict in MERCOSUR, –  Notes  Works Cited  Index

ix xi xiii xvii  

      

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TABLES

Unilateral and Negotiated Measures Restricting Argentina-Brazil Trade, – Evolution of te Quality of Cooperation in MERCOSUR, – Evolution of Hegemonic Leadersip in MERCOSUR (Brazil), – Summary of Researc Design Brazilian Imports of Automobiles, – Measures of Economic Power and Interdependence,  Argentine Automobile Exports, – Explaining te Automobile Sector Crisis Evolution of te Argentine Footwear Sector, – Argentina: Import Penetration of Brazilian Footwear, – Argentina: Selected Macroeconomic Indicators, – Brazilian Footwear Exports by Main Destinations, – Brazil: Main Footwear-Producing States,  Asymmetries in Economic Power, 

i

x







      

 

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