Power and Regionalism in Latin America: The Politics of Mercosur.

Quiliconi, Cintia

Power and Regionalism in Latin America: The Politics of Mercosur. By Laura Gomez-Mera. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013.

The way that the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) has unfolded since its creation in 1994 seems to present a paradox. While its institutional structure has sustained and reinforced a distinctive identity among members, it has been less effective in amalgamating the divergent calculations of individual member states, particularly that of Argentina and Brazil, who support very different, and even conflicting, economic policies affecting the raison d'etre of Mercosur. Laura Gomez-Mera addresses this paradox by arguing that on the one hand the bloc has not been weakened, yet on the other Mercosur s endurance remains "weak" (pp. 213-217). According to Gomez-Mera, domestic political forces weaken incentives for regional cooperation. This argument is made by examining external vulnerability and power asymmetries as drivers of conflicting incentives for regional cooperation in Mercosur. While these are defining features of crisis, what defines resilience in Mercosur is precisely weak institutions yet strong identity.

The book unfolds in eight chapters. The first three chapters offer a conceptual framework combining a rationalist approach focusing on power considerations and constructivist insights to explain the formation of national preferences in regard to regional cooperation. This theoretical ambition explains the tension between power asymmetries despite convergent identities between Argentina and Brazil (pp. 138-140). This framework is followed by empirical analysis developed in Chapters 4 through 6 where the author examines bilateral sectoral disputes on automobiles, footwear products, and the issues in the implementation of the common external tariff. Chapter 7 turns to the more recent attempts by Argentina and Brazil to deal with textiles, home appliances, and wine, key "sensitive sectors that have been a primary source of bilateral tensions since the late 1990s (pp. 157-196). These cases prove the theoretical claim developed in the opening chapters that address the tensions between national preferences and positions during the dispute as well as the distributional outcome of the conflict. Finally, the closing chapter summarizes the main empirical findings and discusses implications for how regionalism is practiced and theorized.

Gomez-Mera's argument is convincing and well developed despite the combination of two seemingly incompatible theoretical and ontological approaches; that is, classical neorealism and constructivism. This is an interesting and timely book given the recent changes in the political economy of regional integration in Latin America and, thus, will appeal to scholars interested in regionalism, international political economy, and Latin American politics.