Asymmetries in regional integration and local development

The more recent waves of regionalism in Latin America have been associated, respectively, with structuralist, neoliberal and post-liberal economic and political experiments in the region. Structuralist regionalism was inaugurated in the 1950s and somehow survived until the 1970s; open regionalism followed in the 1980s and 1990s, and was replaced, to a certain extent, during the next decade by post-liberal regionalism. However, the limits, if not demise, of post-liberal experiments in the most important economies of Latin America pose the question of the future of regionalism. In this changing situation, this paper explores several questions that rise about the future of regionalism in Latin America. Will regionalism hold sway in Latin America? Will present integration schemes continue in the region? Will new entities arise? Will there be a convergence in diversity between integration projects in Latin America? Will the new context of global uncertainties lead to a revival of regionalism?

The regionalization process is not something new in International Relations. The most prominent paradigm of such tendencies is of course the European Union. However, such tendencies have been met in Latin America since the early 60s, but on the contrary to EU, these initiatives failed due to the tendency for national protectionism, the tensions between the states and the private sector, and the uneven trade balances among partners that created serious political tensions in the agreements. • Adding to the above the U.S. skepticism concerning regional approaches during that period, and also the fact that during this period LA countries were dominated by authoritarian governments that stimulated national rivalries, border conflicts and restrictions on the flow of goods, people and development of regional infrastructure, clearly someone could see the negative scheme that the first attempt had to deal with. • During the 90s a new wave of regionalization came into surface. Under the pressure of a devastating economic collapse the states of Latin America proceeded to a structural economic reform, a new wave of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) known as the ‘new-open regionalism’. The main characteristics and the main objectives of this new attempt were: a) the strengthening of structural economic reform through the creation of strategic policy tool capable to reinforce this reform, b) the economic transformation via a reciprocal openness that guarantees new opportunities for export experience and diversification and thereby over time serve as a strategic stepping stone to compete more effectively in a global economy, c) the attraction of foreign direct investment by creating a larger liberalized rulesbased market with locational advantages, d) the establishment of a functional regional cooperation following of course the example of Western Europe, and finally in terms of geopolitics, the establishment of a safety net between likeminded countries for the promotion of disarmament and peace among neighbors, while enhancing their bargaining power in international fora. • In 26th of March 1991, the Mercosur was established among Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and it seemed that the regionalization process in Latin America made a very positive and radical shift, with Brazil and Argentina taking the wheel. The route of Mercosur until now is for many experts quite ambiguous, because the outcomes of such an ambitious effort don’t seem to be too obvious. • However, Mercosur tried to promote not only regional cooperation but transregional as well, with other regional blocks such as European Union, ASEAN and NAFTA. Collaborations that untill now don’t seem to flourish in a desirable level.

Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 1986

A recent issue of Society and Space was concerned with regional planning in Latin America. The papers focused either on sweepingly macrolevel analysis or on local community-based development strategies. This paper is an outline of some of the problems with this discourse as it was presented in the journal, and it is suggested that both groups have neglected the theoretical, empirical, and practical importance of ‘middle level’ analyses. It is at this level where the larger processes and local dynamics unfold, and where the real constraints and contingencies occur. Given the current complexity of Latin American development processes, comforting notions about transnational corporations or romantic views of community development will not advance our analytics or address the practical challenges.

2010

Relying on natural resources-based exports, this productive pattern has long characterised the development of the Latin American economies, and continues to be one of the most compelling drawbacks for regional development. Although their commodities’ exports have seen a temporal rise both in their prices and in their international demand, this type of productive specialisation has resulted in frequent external pressures that have limited long-run economic growth, rendering these economies very vulnerable to international fluctuations. Besides, since the expansion of their productive capacity heavily depends on the imports of capital goods, the traditional accelerator effect of domestic investment could be reduced and, in this way, economic growth could also be jeopardised. The current situation in developing countries has called forth the necessity both to reduce the effects of the international economic turmoil and to reinforce their contracting power in the multipolar internationa...

Sociologia. Problemas e Práticas, 2004

Regional integration in Latin America is a long but not-so-successful story. Only by 1990 the creation of a new regional bloc — namely Mercosur — and the relaunching of two previous attempts — the Andean Community of Nations and the Central American Common Market — allowed to envision a different trend. Today, the three referred blocs feature a series of divergent characteristics, among them the reached level of integration and the type of institutionalization. However, all three have something in common: none fits easily the theories of regional integration that were developed drawing on the European case. This paper analyzes the Latin American integration experience in light of the main contemporary integration theories, in order to pinpoint some inconsistencies between theories and cases with a view to guiding further research. Among the main findings is the increasing relevance of national executives as crucial driving force of the integration processes.

The Routledge Handbook of Latin American Development, 2018

The contribution of regional organizations to Latin American development has been slight at best. Partly due to the prioritization of other goals such as national sovereignty or regime stability, and partly due to resource scarcity and poor management, regional organizations have proliferated but national levels of development have remained low and, above all, heterogeneous across countries. The latter feature testifies to the negligible impact of regional organizations, as their very existence was intended to promote convergence and smooth differences. None of the three sources of development, namely democracy, rule of law, and public goods, have shown to attain a major impact.

Review of International Studies, 2009

Latin America has a long tradition in a diversity of regional associations. The regional milieu broadly speaking is in some ways unique because of its shared beginnings in the system of states, commonality in terms of Iberian as well as indigenous culture 2 , the intimate exposure to the US reach and the ultimate mark of US hegemony. In this sense, regionalism is hardly "new"; as a channel for the spread of policies it dates as far back as the struggles for independence and the coetaneous conformation of republics with startling degrees of social and organizational commonalities. This is a distinct birth mark, which also helps to explain regionalism's trajectory, and its mix of contestation, adaptation and pragmatism to a number of realpolitik dilemmas. The time frame, together with the exposure to a particular set of influences, distinguishes the Americas from other expressions of regionalism around the world. Frontiers are mostly consolidated, a feature that is reflected in the lowest levels of armed conflicts between states and the lowest share of military expenditures in GNP worldwide 3 . The 1968 Treaty of Tlateloloco established an early commitment to prohibit and prevent the use, manufacture, production or acquisition of nuclear weapons in the region, then turning Latin America into the sole continent free from nuclear war competition. While the region is also largely free of religious conflicts and strong ethnic strife, the differences in size and levels of development are several times larger than those found between the actual and prospective members of the European Union. Although a continent of many contrasts, policy trends, patterns of consensus and conformity have come in 1 The diligent research assistance of Melisa Deciancio is most gratefully acknowledged.

Latin American Research Review, 1981

The Latin American integration movement has spanned a variety of experiences in regional cooperation over the past two decades, which include examples of some of the greatest successes as well as the greatest 167

2020

The Asia-Pacific (AP) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) regions are not only the main poles of dynamism in what is considered to be an intractable global economic environment, but they are also at the forefront of important geopolitical transformations. Spurred by the promise of a greater role in world affairs, LAC governments have been actively pursuing new regionalization strategies with the aim of positioning LAC as an alternative constellation of power in an increasingly inter-dependent and complex multi-polar international system. Though LAC's emergence onto the world stage is in part explained by the growing importance of transpacific economic relations, these have been relatively understudied, particularly, as they concern the development of alternative regionalization processes in the Western Hemisphere. This essay seeks to explain the evolution of the latest waves of LAC intra-regional integration and cooperation in the context of robust transpacific economic re...

2023

This paper is based on the research related to regional integration attempts in Latin America and their effect on the economic development of Latin American countries. Recent analyses clarify that the US’ intervention in the politics of Latin America has been the main obstacle of the regional integration process. Most importantly, political fragmentation of the countries in the region affects the success of the organizations that are formed for the regional integration. This is especially visible in the political processes of the countries such as economic crises in Argentina, political instability in Venezuela and increasing migration to the US from Latin American countries. Notable studies reveal that despite the regional integration efforts, the economic benefits to the region has been limited compared to the benefit of the global economic powers. Different from the current literature, this paper focuses on the internal dynamics of Latin American countries. In this respect, this paper investigates the effect of the regional integration attempts for the economic development of the countries in Latin America. In this regard, the rational state behaviour was found as an important element to explain in relation to the Latin American integration attempts. With a liberal intergovernmentalist perspective, this paper aims to reveal the success of regional integration attempts in Latin America with the cases of Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) and Andean Community (CAN). The main argument of this paper is that increasing economic cooperation and creating a reconstruction model with a financial assistance to the less developed countries in the region have led to a regional economic development in cohesion with the policies of the regional powers of Latin America.