Mercosur

Ruling the World: MERCOSUR
Since its genesis in 1957 as the European Economic Community, the European Union has spurred not only scholarly interest in regional integration through the abundance of integration theory but also has become a template for a political objective achieved through economic means. Less developed countries, in particular those with a historical relationship with Europe, are attempting to model their own supranational institutions of regional integration after the European Union (Rueda 2). MERCOSUR or the Common Market of the South is one such attempt by Southern Cone countries of South America. In light of numerous theories of regional integration, Lloyd Gruber’s ruling the world theory has provided a comparable account of how the European Union came to be through the go-it-alone power of France and Germany. Thus, if MERCOSUR is using the EU as a template, then it would be reasonable to suggest that they too can find success within Gruber’s framework. Yet, there has been consistent stagnation among the organization in regards to the complete economic and monetary policy coordination that has made the European Union the example of successful regional integration it has become. Hence, the question becomes where is MERCOSUR going wrong? I will dissect the formation of MERCOSUR utilizing three of Gruber’s theoretical components--- go it alone power, threat of exclusion and winners and losers— then assess their current mistrials under the theory’s assertion of the importance of domestic successors to coalition durability. Lastly, I will enumerate on the coalition’s future outlook.  
In Ruling the World: Power Politics and the Rise of Supranational Institutions, Gruber asserts that “… two states [A and B] ---the ultimate beneficiaries of cooperation---encounter an exogenous shock of some kind… In the wake of this shock, our two prime movers---neither of which had previously been inclined to coordinate its policies with the other---observe that...