Mercosur: A failing development project?

International Affairs

Volumn 79, Issue 2, 2003, Pages

  Mecham, Michael ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85047054330     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2346.00313     Document Type: Review

References (128)

1. Common Market of the South (Southern Cone); in Spanish, Mercado Comun del Sur. Full members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Bolivia and Chile as associates. 'Latin America' includes South and Central America and Mexico.
2. For the full text in English of the Treaty of Asunción, see http://www.sice.oas.org/trade/mrcsr/mrcsrtoc.
3. The term is borrowed from James M. Cypher and James L. Dietz, The process of economic development (London: Routledge, 1997), p. 3.
4. Brian Z. Tamahana, 'The lessons of law-and-development studies', American Journal of International Law 89, 1995, p. 484.
5. Cypher and Dietz, The process of economic development, p. 11.
6. Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 11.
7. Anna Dickson, Development and international relations (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997), p. 16.
8. Cypher and Dietz, The process of economic development, p. 49.
9. Cristóbal Kay, Latin American theories of development and underdevelopment (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 126.
10. Tamahana, 'The lessons of law-and-development studies', p. 471.
11. For example, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan's theory of the 'big push', and Walt Whitman Rostow's 'stages of economic growth' and the concept of 'take-off'.
12. See Andrew Hurrell, 'The United States and Latin America: neorealism re-examined', in Ngaire Woods, ed., Explaining international relations since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 167-71.
13. Ibid., p. 170.
14. Frans J. Schuurman, 'Paradigms lost, paradigms regained? Development studies in the twenty-first century', Third World Quarterly 21: 1 (2000), p. 7.
15. Mark T. Berger, 'The nation-state and the challenge of global capitalism', Third World Quarterly 22: 6, Dec. 2001, p. 890.
16. Victor Bulmer-Thomas and A. Douglas Kincaid, Central America 2020: towards a new regional development model (Hamburg: Institut für Iberoamerika-Kunde, 2000), p. 28.
17. For example, Victor Bulmer-Thomas, ed., Regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean: the political economy of open regionalism (London: Institute for Latin American Studies, 2001), pp. 2-4, lists eight economic dimensions of globalization.
18. Fredric Jameson, 'Globalization and political strategy', New Left Review, July/Aug. 2000, p. 49.
19. John Gray, False dawn: the delusions of global capitalism (London: Granta, 1999), p. 221.
20. The term was invented in 1990 by John Williamson, who argued that the set of policy reforms which most of official Washington thought would be good for Latin America could be summarized in ten propositions ranging from fiscal discipline to privatization, deregulation and so on. He has since challenged its use as a synonym for neoliberalism. See John Williamson, 'What should the Bank think about the Washington consensus?', http://www.iie.com/papers/williamsono799.htm.
21. Bulmer-Thomas and Kincaid, Central America 2020, p. 3.
22. G. Pope Atkins, Latin America and the Caribbean in the international system (Oxford: Westview, 1999), p. 64.
23. Victor Bulmer-Thomas, The economic history of Latin America since independence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 14.
24. Pope Atkins, Latin America and the Caribbean in the international system, p. 65.
25. Howard J. Wiarda, ed., Politics and social change in Latin America: still a distinctive tradition? (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1992), p. 4.
26. Ibid., p. 20. According to Wiarda, 'Corporatism refers to a system in which the political culture and institutions reflect a historic hierarchical, authoritarian, organic view of man, society and polity.'
27. Wiarda, 'Law and political development in Latin America: toward a framework for analysis', ibid., p. 221.
28. Nancy Birdsall, Carol Graham and Richard H. Sabot, 'Virtuous circles in Latin America's second stage of reforms', in Birdsall, Graham and Sabot, eds, Beyond tradeoffs: market reform and equitable growth in Latin America (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1998), p. 1.
29. See World Bank, World Development Report 2000/01: attacking poverty, selected world development indicators, at http://www.worldbank.org/wpb/wdrpoverty/report/index.htm.
30. John Sheahan and Enrique V. Iglesias, 'Kinds and causes of inequality in Latin America', in Birdsall, Graham and Sabot, eds, Beyond tradeoffs, p. 29.
31. See Gordon Connell-Smith, The inter-American system (London: Oxford University Press, 1966).
32. Nicola Phillips, 'Regionalist governance in the new political economy of development: "relaunching" the Mercosur', Third World Quarterly 22: 4, 2001, p. 565.
33. Robert Devlin and Antoni Estevadeordal, 'What's new in the new regionalism in the Americas?', in Bulmer-Thomas, ed., Regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean, p. 43.
34. See Mario Esteban Carranza, South American Free Trade Area or Free Trade Area of the Americas? Open regionalism and the future of regional economic integration in South America (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), p. 58.
35. Leonardo Campsos Filho, New regionalism and Latin America: the case of Mercosul (London: Institute for Latin American Studies, 1999), pp. 12-16.
36. Donald G. Richards, 'Dependent development and regional integration: a critical examination of the Southern Cone Common Market', Latin American Perspectives, issue 97, 24: 6, Nov. 1997, p. 149: 'largely Brazilian reaction to the attempt by the United States to reassert its once unchallenged position as the hegemonic political power in the hemisphere'.
37. See Nicola Phillips, 'Hemispheric integration and subregionalism in the Americas', International Affairs 79: 2, March 2003, pp. 000-00.
38. Carranza ascribed five characteristics to 'open regionalism': free trade; openness to foreign investment; across-the board tariff reductions; access by non-members; market-driven character. See South American Free Trade Area or Free Trade Area of the Americas?, p. 62.
39. Bulmer-Thomas, ed., Regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean, p. 2.
40. Sheila Page, Regionalism among developing countries (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000).
41. Melissa H. Birch, 'Mercosur: the road to economic integration in the Southern Cone', International Journal of Public Administration 23: 5, May-Aug. 2000, p. 1404.
42. Sylvia M. Williams, 'Integration in South America: the Mercosur experience', International Relations 13: 2, Aug. 1996, pp. 51-61.
43. Felix Pena, 'New approaches to economic integration in the Southern Cone', Washington Quarterly 18: 3, Summer 1995, pp. 113-22.
44. See Diana Tussie, 'Latin American integration: from LAFTA to LAIA', Journal of World Trade Law 16, Sept.-Oct. 1982, pp. 399-413.
45. Jaime Behar, 'Measuring the effects of economic integration for the Southern Cone countries: industry simulations of trade liberalization', The Developing Economies 33: 1, March 1999, pp. 4-5.
46. See Williams, 'Integration in South America', pp. 52-3.
47. See Richards, 'Dependent development and regional integration', section on 'The lost decade in the Southern Cone'.
48. Jeffrey Cason, 'On the road to Southern Cone economic integration', Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 42: 1, 2000, pp. 23, 25.
49. See Daniel Chudnovsky and Fernando Porto, 'On Argentine-Brazilian economic integration', CEPAL Review 39, 1989, pp. 115-34.
50. Paulo Roberto de Almeida, 'Mercosur's future in the context of multilateral and regional trade liberalization', workshop paper, at http://www.cap.uni-muenchen.de/transatlantic/events/la.html.
51. Cason, 'On the road to Southern Cone economic integration', p. 24.
52. See note 2 above.
53. Pena, 'New approaches to economic integration in the Southern Cone', p. 115.
54. See Birch, 'Mercosur'.
55. Roberto Bouzos and Hernán Soltz, 'Institutions and regional integration', in Bulmer-Thomas, ed., Regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean, p. 95.
56. Cason, 'On the road to Southern Cone economic integration', p. 35.
57. Behar, 'Measuring the effects of economic integration for the Southern Cone countries', p. 29.
58. Cason, 'On the road to Southern Cone economic integration'.
59. Victor Bulmer-Thomas, 'Brazil's devaluation: confounding the pessimists', International Affairs 75: 4, Oct. 1999, pp. 729-41.
60. Paul Cammack, 'Mercosur and Latin American integration', in Kurt W. Radtke and Marianne Wiesebron, eds, Competing for integrations: Japan, Europe, Latin America and their strategic partners (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2001).
61. Richards, 'Dependent development and regional integration', p. 133.
62. Henry G. Preusse, 'Mercosur - another failed move towards integration', The World Economy 24: 7, July 2001, pp. 911-31.
63. Michael Reid, 'Turmoil and opportunity', The World Today, June 2002, p. 24.
64. See Victor Bulmer-Thomas, The new economic model in Latin America and its impact on income distribution and poverty (London: Macmillan, 1996).
65. Robert N. Gwynne and Cristóbal Kay, 'Views from the periphery: futures of neoliberalism in Latin America', Third World Quarterly 21: 1, Feb. 2000, p. 150.
66. See Paul Cammack, 'Making the poor work for globalization?', New Political Economy 6: 3, 2001, pp. 397-407.
67. This assessment draws on Oscar Ermida Uriarte, 'Mercosur institutions and labour relations', paper presented to conference on Economic Integration, Labour Law and Social Security in the Americas (jointly organized by the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers and Martineau Walker) in Viña del Mar, Chile, 14-15 April 1998. See http://laboris.uqam/conference/textes/ ErmidaEng.htm.
68. Ibid., p. 2.
69. Felix Pena, 'Broadening and deepening: striking the right balance', in Riordan Roett, ed., Mercosur: regional integration, world markets (London: Lynne Rienner, 1999), p. 52.
70. See Moises Naim's two stages of economic liberalization typology in 'Washington consensus or Washington confusion?', working draft of a paper prepared for the IMF Conference on Second Generation Reforms, Washington DC, 26 Oct. 1999.
71. Pena, 'Broadening and deepening', pp. 49, 59.
72. Nora Lustig and Ruthanne Deutsch, The Inter-American Development Bank and poverty reduction: an overview (March 1998), http://www.iadb.org/sds/pov/publication/publication_21_246_e.htm.
73. 'Cramming them in: more Latin Americans are being educated, but not well', The Economist, 11 May 2002, pp. 63-4.
74. Asa Cristina Laurell, 'Structural adjustment and the globalization of social policy in Latin America', International Sociology 15: 2, June 2000, p. 306.
75. OECD Economic Survey of Brazil: June 2001 (Paris: OECD, 2001), pp. 194-206.
76. INTAL (Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean), Mercosur Report 2000/2001 (Buenos Aires: Inter-American Development Bank, Mercosur Report No. 7, 2001), p. 5. See http://iadb.org/intal/ingles/I-default.htm.
77. Naim, 'Washington consensus or Washington confusion?', pp. 10-11.
78. Andrew Hurrell, 'The politics of regional integration in Mercosur', in Bulmer-Thomas, ed., Regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean, p. 200.
79. Carol Graham and Moises Naim, 'The political economy of institutional reform in Latin America', in Birdsall et al., eds. Beyond tradeoffs, p. 321.
80. Robert Keohane, 'Institutionalist theory and the realist challenge after the Cold War', in David Baldwin, ed., Neo-realism and neo-liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 274.
81. Hurrell, 'The politics of regional integration in Mercosur', p. 203.
82. The full text of the protocol is available at http://sice.oas.org/trade/mrcsr/ourop/index.asp.
83. Bouzos and Soltz, 'Institutions and regional integration', p. 95.
84. Williams, 'Integration in South America', p. 60.
85. Birch, 'Mercosur', p. 1406.
86. This analysis draws on Rosine M. Plank-Brumback, 'Dispute settlement', in José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs and Maryse Roberts, eds, Toward free trade in the Americas (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 2001), pp. 255-75.
87. Bouzas and Soltz, 'Institutions and regional integration', p. 95.
88. Ibid., p. 107.
89. Peter Evans, Embedded autonomy: states and industrial transformation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995).
90. Cypher and Dietz, The process of economic development, p. 232.
91. Tamahana, 'The lessons of law-and-development studies', p. 484.
92. I b i d.
93. Hugo Frühling, 'Judicial reform and democratisation in Latin America', in Felipe Aguero and Jeffrey Stark, eds. Fault lines of democracy in post-transition Latin America (Miami: North-South Center, 1998), p. 237.
94. A Latinobarometro 2001 poll showed that only 30 per cent of the populations of the region had confidence and trust in the judiciary. This has changed little since democracies were restored. See The Economist, 'An alarm call for Latin America's democrats', 26 July 2001; Marta Lagos, 'How people view democracy: between stability and crisis in Latin America', Journal of Democracy 12: 1, Jan. 2001. Both available online at http://www.latinobarometro.org.
95. A Latinobarometro 2001 poll showed that only 30 per cent of the populations of the region had confidence and trust in the judiciary. This has changed little since democracies were restored. See The Economist, 'An alarm call for Latin America's democrats', 26 July 2001; Marta Lagos, 'How people view democracy: between stability and crisis in Latin America', Journal of Democracy 12: 1, Jan. 2001. Both available online at http://www.latinobarometro.org.
96. Rachel Sieder, ed., Impunity in Latin America (London: Institute for Latin American Studies, 2001), p. 1.
97. Howard J. Wiarda and Harvey F. Kline, An introduction to Latin American politics and development (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2001), p. 131.
98. Ibid., p. 134.
99. Ibid., p. 135.
100. See Thomas Carothers, 'The rule of law revival', Foreign Affairs 77: 2, March-April 1998, pp. 96-106.
101. Thomas Carothers, 'The many agendas of rule-of-law reform in Latin America', in Pilar Domingo and Rachel Sieder, eds, The rule of law in Latin America: the international promotion of judicial reform (London: Institute for Latin American Studies, 2001), p. 7.
102. Kevin E. Davis and Michael J. Trebilcock, 'Law reforms and development', Third World Quarterly 22: 1, 2001, p. 33.
103. Wiarda, 'Law and political development in Latin America', pp. 211-238, 232, 221.
104. Hurrell, 'The politics of regional integration in Mercosur', p. 209.
105. See Fernando Masi, 'Mercosur: the difficult path toward integration', Miami: North-South Center briefing, 11 July 2001. http://www.miami.edu/nsc/publications/newsupdates/Update45.html.
106. Discussion with Professor Jose Augusto Guilhon Albuquerque of São Paulo University, 27 May 2002.
107. Lia Valls Pereira, 'Toward the Common Market of the South: Mercosur's origins, evolution, and challenges', in Roett, ed., Mercosur, p. 20.
108. President Cardoso of Brazil, quoted in Richard Lapper and Raymond Colitt, 'Cardoso keeps a cool head', Financial Times, 18 April 2002.
109. Hurrell, 'The politics of regional integration in Mercosur', p. 195.
110. Graham and Naim, 'The political economy of institutional reform in Latin America'.
111. Bouzos and Soltz, 'Institutions and regional integration', p. 117.
112. Hurrell, 'The politics of regional integration in Mercosur', p. 211.
113. INTAL, Mercosur Report 2001/2002, p. 6.
114. See Page, Regionalism among developing countries, pp. 236-46.
115. Fernando Masi and Amaury Hoste, Economic development and asymmetries in Mercosur: the prospects of a Mercosur regional development fund, Working Paper no. 4 (Miami: North-South Center, April 2002), pp. 23-4. See http://www.miami.edu/nsc/publications/pubs-WP-pdf/WP4.pdf.
116. Masi, 'Mercosur: the difficult path toward integration', p. 37.
117. Kenneth Abbott et al., 'The concept of legalisation', special issue of International Organisation 54: 3, Summer 2000, pp. 401-20.
118. Bulmer-Thomas thinks not; see The new economic model in Latin America, p. 296.
119. Edmund Amann and Werner Baer have recently concluded that a decade of neoliberal policies has 'achieved little by way of reducing income inequality and poverty'. See 'Neoliberalism and its consequences in Brazil', Journal of Latin American Studies 34: 4, Nov. 2002, p. 945.
120. See David Williams, 'Aid and sovereignty: quasi-states and the international financial institutions', Review of International Studies 26: 4, 2000, pp. 557-73.
121. Reid, 'Turmoil and opportunity', p. 24.
122. Terry Wade, 'Washington consensus is losing support in Latin America', Dow Jones Newswires, 25 Nov. 2002.
123. Larry Rohter, 'A leftist takes over in Brazil and pledges a "new path'", New York Times, 2 Jan. 2003.
124. Jonathan Carp, 'Da Silva pledges that economy, not social policy, will be the focus', Wall Street Journal, 31 Dec. 2002.
125. Kevin G. Hall, 'Brazil's leader pushes trade pact: revive Mercosur, neighbours', Miami Herald, 30 Dec. 2002. A more detailed assessment of prospects under the Lula government is given in Andy Klom's article, 'Mercosur and Brazil: a European perspective', International Affairs 79: 2, March 2003, pp. 00-00.
126. Kevin G. Hall, 'Brazil's leader pushes trade pact: revive Mercosur, neighbours', Miami Herald, 30 Dec. 2002. A more detailed assessment of prospects under the Lula government is given in Andy Klom's article, 'Mercosur and Brazil: a European perspective', International Affairs 79: 2, March 2003, pp. 00-00.
127. See 'Mercosur econ talks begin behind closed doors in Brasilia', Dow Jones Newswires, 6 Dec. 2002.
128. Larry Rohter, 'South America trading bloc frees movement of its people', New York Times, 25 Nov. 2002.