Institutionalist analysis of South American integration

Abstract

The South-American integration is identified in this work by the regional compromises assumed throughout the 1990’s. These regional compromises were launched during the 7th Rio Group Summit Meeting in October 1993. This initial moment was followed by South-American President Summit Meetings (2000, 2002, 2004), by the Initiative for the South-American Infrastructure Integration (IIRSA, 2000), by the South-American Nations Community (Casa, 2005) and by the South-American Nations Union (Unasul, 2007) creation. This work analyzes this process taking as a parameter the conditions and the mechanisms indicated by institutionalist analyses as a very important means for integration process success such as regional asymmetries and internal stability. We conclude that these two conditions are the most problematic in the South-American case. They pose obstacles to the progress of the others conditions. This present work preliminary evaluation permits affirming that the integration process will be longer and more roving that it should. This is due to the process being in its initial mechanism implementation, and basic conditions generation phases.