Regionalism and Resistance in the South: The Social Dimension of Mercosur.

As a peripheral scheme seeking greater international insertion, the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), currently engaged in multilateral negotiations with a number of countries and regional integration blocs, represents not only another complementary phenomenon of a globalized world, but a unique Southern opportunity for bargaining on trade and providing resistance against the Washington Consensus and the neo-liberal prescriptions imposed by powerful Northern governments and institutions. This paper attempts to investigate the bloc’s orientation towards a development path based primarily on the resolution of common socioeconomic problems. The subject will be analyzed in light of the future creation of a free trade area in the Western Hemisphere, which is currently perceived by social movements as another U.S. project of hegemonic continuity and as an attempt to consolidate its economic dominance in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]