Citizenship and governance in Mercosur: arguments for a social agenda

Abstract

This paper examines a neglected dimension of the debate about post-national citizenship by focusing on the articulation of citizenship demands at the level of the region. More specifically, it analyses the pressures for, and the constraints on, the project of social citizenship within Mercosur. Drawing on primary research in Argentina, the article identifies a number of initiatives that attempt to infuse Mercosur with a social agenda. I argue that the significance of these initiatives is that they represent the first coherent attempt to articulate a citizen-centred model of new regionalism in Mercosur. But I also suggest that a formidable combination of obstacles lies in the path of this alternative project of regional governance. Finally, I explore the consequences of excluding issues of citizenship, rights and welfare from the agenda of regionalism, highlighting in particular the possibility of societal rejection if region building remains empty of social meaning.

Notes

The research for this paper was made possible by an award from the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-22-0427 New Regionalism and Transnational Collective Action in South America). The article is based on primary research in Argentina in 2004; many of the interviewees spoke off the record and I have therefore not identified them by name. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the ESRC Seminar Series ‘Social Policy, Stability and Exclusion: Housing, Public Services and Social Class’, at the Institute for the Americas, University of London, 10 December 2004. I would like to thank the organisers and the participants in the seminar for their comments, as well as the reviewers for helpful suggestions.