Analyses the development of neoliberalism in Latin America and the Mercosur Project.

While the neoliberal model continues to dominate economic and political life in Latin America, people throughout the region have begun to strategize about how to move beyond this model. Twelve cutting-edge papers investigate how Latin Americans are struggling to articulate a future in which neoliberalism is reconfigured.

The world is at the crossroads of social change, in the vortex of forces that are bringing about a different world, a post-neoliberal state. This groundbreaking book lays out an analysis of the dynamics and contradictions of capitalism in the twenty-first century. These dynamics of forces are traced out in developments across the world - in the Arab Spring of North Africa and the Middle East, in Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America, in the United States, and in Asia. The forces released by a system in crisis can be mobilized in different ways and directions. The focus of the book is on the strategic responses to the systemic crisis. As the authors tell it, these dynamics concern three worldviews and strategic responses. The Davos Consensus focuses on the virtues of the free market and deregulated capitalism as it represents the interests of the global ruling class. The post-Washington Consensus concerns the need to give capital a human face and establish a more inclusive form of development and global governance. In addition to these two visions of the future and projects, the authors identify an emerging radical consensus on the need to move beyond capitalism as well as neoliberalism.

Although regional integration initiatives have a long history in the world economy, these efforts have expanded significantly since the 1990s. In Latin America and the Caribbean, a wave of regional integration initiatives has included free trade areas, customs unions, and steps towards common markets. The emergence of this "new regionalism"of trade in which global and regional forces complement one another has been driven by such factors as the opening up of economies and structural reforms. This year's edition of Economic and Social Progress in Latin America explores the dimensions of integration, macroeconomic coordination, and the effects of regional integration on productivity, market access, foreign direct investment, infrastructure and income inequality. Topics include subregional integration schemes, the multilateral trade agenda launched in Doha, initiatives such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and interregional agreements with the European Union.

Neoliberalism is often studied as a political ideology, a government program, and even as a pattern of cultural identities. However, less attention is paid to the specific institutional resources employed by neoliberal administrations, which have resulted in the configuration of a neoliberal state model. This accessible volume compiles original essays on the neoliberal era in Latin America and Spain, exploring subjects such as neoliberal public policies, power strategies, institutional resources, popular support, and social protest. The book focuses on neoliberalism as a state model: a configuration of public power designed to implement radical policy proposals. This is the third volume in the State and Nation Making in Latin America and Spain series, which aims to complete and advance research and knowledge about national states in Latin America and Spain.

This interdisciplinary edited volume explores the political economy of regionalism in Latin America. It identifies convergent forces which have existed in the region since its very conception and analyses these dynamics in their different historical, geographic and structural contexts. Particular attention is paid to key countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, as well as subregions like the Southern Cone and Central America. To understand the resilience of regionalism in Latin America, this book proposes to highlight four main issues. Firstly, that resilience is linked to mechanisms of self-enforcement that are part of the accumulation of experiences, institution building and common cultural features described in this book as regionalist acquis. Secondly, the elements and driving forces behind the promotion and expression of the regionalist acquis are influenced and shaped by nested systems in which social processes are inserted. Thirdly, when looking at systems, there is a particular influence by national and global ones, which condition the form and endurance of regional projects. Finally, beyond systems, the book highlights the relevance of agents as crucial players in the shaping of the resilience of regionalism in Latin America. This insightful collection will appeal to advanced students and researchers in international economics, international relations, international political economy, economic history and Latin American studies.

Bringing together comparative case studies from Central Europe and South America, this book focuses on 'new' regions - regions created as political projects of modernization and 're-scaling'. Through this approach it de-codes 'New Regionalism' in terms of its contributions to institutional change, while acknowledging its contested nature and contradictions. It questions whether these regions are merely a strategy of neo-liberal adjustment to changing political and economic conditions, or whether they are indicative of true reform, greater citizen participation and empowerment. It assesses whether these regions are really representing something new or whether they are a reconfiguration of traditional power relationships. It provides a timely critical analysis of 'region-building' and the extent to which national processes of decentralization and sub-national processes of regionalism can enhance the effectiveness and responsiveness of governance.