The Neodevelopmentalist Front and Mercosur under the PT Governments: The Rise and Fall of Multidimensional Regionalism

• Date: 01 March 2022
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Author: Tatiana Berringer
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X211029308
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X211029308

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 243, Vol. 49 No. 2, March 2022, 104–117

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X211029308

© 2021 Latin American Perspectives

104

The Neodevelopmentalist Front and Mercosur

under the PT Governments

The Rise and Fall of Multidimensional Regionalism

by

Tatiana Berringer

An analysis of the relationship between classes and class fractions and Mercosur under

the PT (Workers’ Party) governments suggests that the transition from the open regional-

ism of the 1990s to the multidimensional regionalism of the 2000s and the crisis of the

latter were linked to the overlap between the regional integration mechanisms Unasur and

Mercosur and the social base of the neodevelopmentalist front. Multidimensional region-

alism went into crisis after 2012, when the country began to suffer the impact of the 2008

financial crisis and changes in international politics and when the political process that

culminated in the 2016 coup began.

Uma análise da relação entre as classes e frações de classe e o Mercosul dos governos

PT sugere que a transição do regionalismo aberto dos anos 1990 para o regionalismo mul-

tidimensional dos anos 2000 e a crise deste ultimo estão ligados à imbricação entre os

processos de integração regional, Unasur e Mercosur, e a base social da frente neodesen-

volvimentista. O regionalismo multidimensional entrou em crise a partir de 2012 quando

o país começou a sofrer mais o impacto da crise financeira de 2008 e das transformações

na política internacional e iniciou-se o processo político que culminou no golpe de 2016.

Keywords: Regional integration, Internal bourgeoisie, Neodevelopmentalism, Workers’

Party

During the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party—PT) governments

(2003–2016), regional integration was one of the priorities of the foreign policy

of the Brazilian state. The strategy was based on the consolidation of multidi-

mensional regionalism, which, unlike the open regionalism of the 1990s, cen-

tered on economic issues and trade liberalization, had incorporated commitments

in the areas of defense, infrastructure, development, social policy. and citizen-

ship (Pereira, 2014). However, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and

the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) were still configured as inter-

governmental arrangements, with little institutionalization and a limited num-

ber of political commitments determined by the political-ideological position

of the Brazilian internal bourgeoisie, which was the main beneficiary of these

Tatiana Berringer is a lecturer in the graduate program in international relations at the Universidade

Federal do ABC. She is the author of A burguesia brasileira e a política externa nos governos FHC e Lula

(2015) and coauthor (with Armando Boito) of “Social Classes, Neodevelopmentalism, and Foreign

Policy under Presidents Lula and Dilma” (Latin American Perspectives 41 [5]). Luis Fierro is a trans-

lator in the Miami area.

1029308LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X211029308Latin American PerspectivesBerringer / NEODEVELOPMENTALISM AND MERCOSUR UNDER THE PT

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