‘The Question of Democracy in Regional Integration Models’

During the recent decades, we have seen how Latin American countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia, or Colombia contributed to new forms of broad regional cooperation and integration among diverse actors both in economic and political level.

Such processes, despite the recent setbacks, have given birth to a series of fruitful experiences of democratic consolidation and the extension of direct democracy mechanisms. Additionally, Latin America experienced developments of creation, consolidation, and expansion of social rights. In parallel, the European Union also experiences similar challenges regarding the democratic integration and its consolidation. Currently, we find ourselves at a crossroads inasmuch we opt for the consolidation of a European social development model based on increased political participation. The only “other” way is the rupture of the welfare state model along with the extension of political passivity of the European people.

The question of the democratic challenge related with integration models, establishes a dialogue between two regional realities so disparate as those of Europe and Latin America. While in Europe we see the rise of political movements that now more than ever propose a rupture with the Euro or the European Union itself, the governments of Latin America have evaluated the lack of greater regional integration and characterized it as one of the problems to be fixed, emphasizing the need for further and better political and economic articulation.

The workshop

The workshop “The Question of Democracy in Regional Integration Models” attempts to delve into the analysis of current realities through a deepening on the analysis of democracy and regional integration while establishing bases to strengthen networks and alliances among the civil society in Europe and in Latin America.

Organisers: transform! europe, Foundation for a Europe of the Citizens (La FEC)

Over these three days, participants from the academic realm will meet with representatives of social organizations and think tanks linked to political movements in Latin America and Europe.

The debates will evolve around the following axes:

• Economic integration. Focus on analyzing the best options for the reversal of the disastrous effects of neoliberal globalization, from a progressive perspective that must bring us to the question of popular sovereignty within the framework of regional integration.

• Political integration. Address from a historical perspective the current debates on political processes at a regional level, covering not only a diagnosis of the current state of affairs, but also an analysis of prospective future scenarios.

• Social and cultural integration. In Latin America the idea of pan-Americanism provides an identity to a continent that presents a cohesion through a common (Spanish) or similar (Portuguese) language that has allowed the existence of transnational movements in the areas of civil society and cultural production and reproduction.

Supplementarily, and as part of the main objectives of the project, the organisers of the seminar will attempt to give continuity to the meetings which used to be held in the framework of the Latin American Progressive Conference of the foundations and associations linked with the political and social movements of Latin America.

Video recordings of all sessions will be available for the public after the workshop. It will be followed by an electronic edition containing the various contributions that will be distributed in the Spanish-speaking world under the title “Democracy and Integration in Latin America.”

See also: www.lafec.org/democracia-e-integracion-regional