This book explores the widely admitted failure of regional integration in this continent, linking the features of regional institutional arrangements with domestic politics and includes an inquiry into regionalism at the hemispherical level.

This collection is a sober assessment of the state of regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. It studies the question from four perspectives: economic, institutional, political, and in relation to the rest of the world. It considers the questions raised by LAC countries' efforts to use 'new' regionalism to address the challenges of globalization and to explore the nature and meaning of open regionalism. This thematic treatment draws on the experience of the different schemes currently in place in the region: NAFTA, CACM, CARICOM, the Andean Community and MERCOSUR. It also examines the nature of globalization, including concerns over the relationship between regionalism and the multilateral system. There is now a broad consensus among LAC countries that regional integration can help them adjust to the new world order, but there is much less agreement on how to achieve it and what reforms are needed to bring it about.

Language policies impact language choice, language prestige, and language spread. Rising regional integration, both formal and informal, adds to the sensitivity and complexity of language politics, whether in North America, South America or Europe. This book shows how language politics vary across the Americas and contrast with Europe.

2011 Updated Reprint. Updated Annually. United Nations Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES) Handbook

This book provides an overview of governance and development in the Mesoamerican Region (MAR), the design and scope of the Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP), its relationship to pre-existing regional organisms and its transformation into Proyecto Mesoamérica. The PPP was introduced as a holistic project that would reverse the cycles of poverty in Mesoamerica. However, the plan incited huge opposition from many groups within Mesoamerica, and throughout its duration few of its objectives were met. The author analyses the plan and describes the regional setting and precursors, as well as the US policy towards the Mesoamerican countries. Using this approach with an analysis of governance in Mesoamerica, this monograph shows a more complete picture of why this ambitious development project did not reach its goals and draws applicable insights to other regions where governance is complex.

This book presents a review of the South American integration process in a global context, with the main factors of success and failure, by comparing it with the European Union development. It also presents South American integration in a regional context; with its subregional pacts and the development of the South American Union of Nations (UNASUR) and how the regionalization faced its stagnation and changed its objectives, replicating and amplifying successful experiences in the integration process. The book presents comparisons between South American and EU integration structures and policies featuring the supranational executive bodies concerned, the judicial structures, the legislative functions and the monetary systems plus common foreign and security policy and common social and development policy of both entities: three supranational institutions and three common policies that define a regional bloc. To avoid diffusing the research, only one of those dimensions receives a deeper analysis: the supranational executive bodies comparison. The second part of this book introduces the Game Theory, a shared-decision model with two or more players that have different priorities for the same decision. The Game Theory analysis is used here to evaluate two typical scenarios of South American regional policy conflicts, pointing out the important role of the exertion of supranational executive power to foster the integration process. The conclusions focus on the main challenges: the existing asymmetries between South American states and the lack of a clear leadership in the region; giving a positive assessment to the new functional approach taken by South American nations. This approach could offer them good chances to foster regional development and allow progress of South American integration. The final comments propose new fields for the Game Theory technique in the integration process analysis.

Latin American Integration Business Law Handbook - Strategic Information and Basic Laws

Originally published in 2004. This comprehensive collection provides an innovative analysis and a comparison between economic and financial integration in Europe and Latin America, addressed from a global, regional and country-specific perspective. It constitutes a valuable overview focusing on three topics: regional integration and monetary cooperation in Europe and Latin America, exchange rate strategies and financial sector structure. The collection is the outcome of a Workshop and high-level Seminar organized by the Banco de España and the European Central Bank that brought together senior European and Latin American central bankers, as well as senior representatives from international institutions. The 31 contributors presented high quality papers, allowing the reader to take advantage of a rigorous economic analysis that uses first-hand information and draws useful lessons for the future.