Introduction

Abstract

The processes of democratization and regionalization in the Southern Cone of Latin America ran roughly parallel to one another between 1985 and 1991. However, the nature of this relationship is by no means clear. The central aim of this book is to investigate the precise place of democracy in the regionalization process in the Southern Cone that led to the formation of the Common Market of the South, Mercosur, between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It has been persuasively argued that democracy and regionalization in the Southern Cone in the second half of the 1980s were not only interrelated but mutually reinforcing.¹ That is to say that the relationship went two ways: democracy affected the development of regionalization and, in turn, the latter had an impact on the democratization process. In this book attention is specifically devoted to how, if at all, democracy has affected or influenced the decision to integrate taken by Argentina and Brazil that later led to the creation of Mercosur. The investigation has been conducted without predetermined intention or conclusion. The research was not intended to reinforce the body of democratic peace literature but rather to explore a set of concomitant historical events that were highly significant for the region concerned.