Public (De)Legitimation of Regionalism in North and South America: NAFTA and MERCOSUR in the US and Brazilian Quality Press

Abstract

There is now considerable evidence that the parameters of European integration have shifted from a ‘permissive consensus’ (Lindberg and Scheingold 1970a) of low public awareness and latent support in the first couple of post-war decades to a ‘constraining dissensus’ of heightened awareness and growing contention since the 1990s (Hooghe and Marks 2009; see also Chapters 2, 5, 8 and 11 of this volume). Many observers suggest that this development is linked with a growing legitimation deficit or crisis of the EU (Kohler-Koch and Rittberger 2007; Lord 2008). However, given the dearth of genuinely comparative research on the politicization and (de)legitimation of regional integration projects, it remains unclear whether these trends are peculiar to the EU — fostered by its unrivalled powers and increasingly supranational character — or whether regional governance arrangements elsewhere in the world have also experienced politicization and (de)legitimation processes in recent years: Does regional integration outside of Europe, then, continue to enjoy a ‘permissive consensus’ or can we observe growing politicization there as well? Is regionalism beyond Europe legitimate or faced with similar crisis tendencies as the European Union (EU)?