Power and regionalism in Latin America : the politics of Mercosur /
María Laura Gómez Mera
- Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013
- 286 p.: ill.; 24 cm
Introduction -- Patterns of conflict and cooperation in the Southern Cone -- Systemic incentives, domestic constraints, and regional cooperation : a neoclassical realist approach -- The automobile sector crisis -- The footwear industry dispute -- Failure to relaunch : the 2001 conflict -- A narrow escape : toward a more flexible Mercosur -- Conclusions : power, domestic politics, and regional order.
This book examines the erratic patterns of regional economic cooperation in the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), a political-economic agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and 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 empirical analyses of several key trade disputes between the bloc's two main partners, Argentina and Brazil, the author 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.