Mercosur: Between Integration and Democracy

Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., New York, Wien. This collection of essays aims to contribute to our understanding of the process of regional integration currently underway in South America. Mercosur is a regional manifestation of a world-wide process of globalisation whose driving force is economic, but which is potentially much more than that. It involves a variety of political, social and cultural processes, some of them barely at an embryonic stage, though each advancing at its own rate of progress. Mercosur's neo-liberal matrix, however, has led to the economic decision-making process being taken outside the realm of politics, thus leaving large sections of the population with no mechanism to influence the integration process so that it addresses their urgent needs and demands. Contents: Francisco Dominguez: Introduction - Marcos Guedes de Oliveira: Limitations on Democratic Transitions in Latin America and the Fate of Mercosur - Francisco Dominguez: Democracy and Economic Integration: The Continental Context - Marcos Lima: Mercosur and the New Global Order: a Methodological Essay - Marcelo de Almeida Medeiros: Multi-Level Governance and the Problem of Balance within Mercosur - Tullo Vigevani/Karina Pasquariello Mariano/Marcelo Fernandes de Oliveira: Mercosur: Democracy and Political Actors - Oliver Dabene: Does Mercosur still Have a Project? - Peter Lambert: Paraguay in Mercosur: Para que? - Suranjit Saha: Core-Periphery in the Americas: Understanding the Political Economy of Mercosur and FTAA.