Latin American Regionalism and EU Studies

Abstract

Outside Europe, nowhere but in Latin America have integration attempts and thinking developed so extensively across space and so consistently over time. This article introduces the historical waves of Latin American regionalism in order to discuss the theories applied to account for, and frequently advocate, regional integration. The aim is twofold: on the one hand, to assess the capacity to travel of theories that have been crafted for the EU; on the other, to draw lessons from the Latin American experiences that may contribute to advance integration theory in general and EU studies in particular.

Key Words:

• Latin America
• EU studies
• regional integration
• regionalism
• neofunctionalism
• intergovernmentalism

Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to the European Commission for its financial support of the research used for this article under Jean Monnet project 153918‐LLP‐1‐2009‐BE‐AJM‐IC, “Comparing the European Union with Other Regional Organisations”.

Notes

1. In 1984, ECLA was broadened to include the Caribbean countries and its acronym became ECLAC. As this article emphasizes its previous work and influence, ECLA will be preferred throughout.