Politicization and Legitimacy in MERCOSUR

Abstract

This chapter discusses when and under which conditions regional governance in MERCOSUR has become politicized, and whether politicization has also resulted in explicit controversies about its legitimacy. In contrast to the proliferation of debates about politicization and legitimacy in the European Union (EU), these topics have hardly been discussed in the case of MERCOSUR. The chapter addresses this gap in the literature from the perspective of comparative regionalism. It starts from the assumption that despite their differences in institutional design, age and success, all regional organizations are political institutions that affect the relationship between individuals and domestic political systems, and therefore they should be included in the discussion about democracy and legitimacy.