Claudia Sanchez-Bajo
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Economía, Department Member
- The University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School of Public Affairs, Department Memberadd
- Brief Bio:PhD in Development Studies, 2001, at the ISS The Hague, part of the Erasmus University, The NetherlandsFell... moreBrief Bio:PhD in Development Studies, 2001, at the ISS The Hague, part of the Erasmus University, The NetherlandsFellow Researcher, University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Economics, CESOT, since 2018Inaugural Chair in Cooperative Enterprises, Business Department, University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, between 2013 and 2015.Lecturer on Income Generating Activities at the Master on Development Cooperation, IUSS, University of Pavia, Italy, 2011 to 2018. https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-sanchez-bajo/edit
Chapter: The concept of ‘epistemic community’ is used to explain the International Labour Organization (ILO) work in relation to cooperatives, which includes the type of relationship that cooperatives have had with the ILO. Albert Thomas,... more
Chapter: The concept of ‘epistemic community’ is used to explain the International Labour Organization (ILO) work in relation to cooperatives, which includes the type of relationship that cooperatives have had with the ILO. Albert Thomas, first Director-General of the ILO from 1919 to 1932, was also a French cooperator and had gathered extensive knowledge on the cooperative movement during his travels throughout Europe. In 1923, Thomas set up an ILO Correspondence Committee on Co-operation, renamed in 1931 as the International Committee on Inter-Cooperative Relations. In 2004, the ILO and the International Co-operative Alliance signed a Memorandum of Understanding to implement a ‘Common Cooperative Agenda’ aimed at creating decent jobs and reducing poverty. The international organization valued cooperatives as solidarity in practice, through their relations, interconnections, services and general organization for mutual help, built by persons, families and communities in both rural and urban areas..
The book is unique in tracing the historical connection between cooperatives and the world of work since the end of the First World War and the recent shifts and restructuring in enterprise and the workplace. It presents a redefinition of the very concept of work, focusing on organizational innovation. This book is published in recognition of 100 years of the International Labour Organization, and gathers together research from leading experts who were brought together at an event co-hosted by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The book is unique in tracing the historical connection between cooperatives and the world of work since the end of the First World War and the recent shifts and restructuring in enterprise and the workplace. It presents a redefinition of the very concept of work, focusing on organizational innovation. This book is published in recognition of 100 years of the International Labour Organization, and gathers together research from leading experts who were brought together at an event co-hosted by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Research Interests:
The financial crisis is destroying wealth but is also a remarkable opportunity to uncover the ways by which debt can be used to regulate the economic system. This book uses four case studies of cooperatives to give an in-depth analysis on... more
The financial crisis is destroying wealth but is also a remarkable opportunity to uncover the ways by which debt can be used to regulate the economic system. This book uses four case studies of cooperatives to give an in-depth analysis on how they have braved the crisis and continued to generate wealth.
'This elegant and deeply-informed inquiry weaves together several themes, each significant in itself, even more so as their relations are developed: the deep and persistent crises of capitalism, in the current phase highly financialized, and the fundamental issue of decision-making in social and economic institutions, with special attention to the elaborate growth of cooperatives of many varieties, the forms they have taken, the problems they face, and their great promise in overcoming economic crises, social malaise, and democratic dysfunction.' - Professor Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA 'Capital and the Debt Trap combines a searing critique of the unstable debt- and-profit driven system that came close to final collapse in the Great Crisis with a fine portrait of the modern cooperative alternative that exists today in Mexico, Canada, France and Spain. Are these perhaps the small creatures that will survive and flourish after the great dinosaurs are gone? Let's hope so.' - James K. Galbraith, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and University of Texas at Austin 'This book is simply a masterpiece on cooperativism for the xxi century. It outstandingly demonstrates why cooperatives are more resilient to the crisis and avoid falling into the dept trap and its implacable cohort of inhuman effects. A decisive contribution not only to economic democracy but also to Democracy as a political system.' - Yves Cabannes, University College London 'This is a timely and important book which both analyses current economic turmoil and shows how the crisis may foment new and more co-operative forms of enterprise. Anyone interested in advancing the cause of participatory ownership as one means of guarding against recurrent crises should read this book.' George Irvin, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 'This book presents a thoughtful and exciting consideration of the roles cooperatives can play and should be expected to play today ... It deserves to be widely read and discussed within and across the boundaries that have long divided cooperative proponents and the general public.' Ian MacPherson, University of Victoria, Canada 'This book is a major step forward in understanding the working of co-operative economies. Its appearance could hardly have been more timely. At a point when the global financial system and the models of economic governance have been thrown into question, it shows how it is that co-operative financial systems are more crisis resistant than contemporary private banking, and how finance can be structured to service long term local and industrial growth rather than subject it to the imperative of short term profitability. More generally, the authors describe an architecture of co-operative governance that has not only been innovative and resilient but is particularly well suited to any post crisis world that is reshaped round multi stakeholder engagement.' - Robin Murray, LSE Global Governance and author of Co-operation in the Age of Google. 'This study on the current global crisis of capitalism is a surprising and fascinating analysis of the transformation that the current dominant world mode of production has gone through. The great merit of the book is to indicate the path to this change with great accuracy and richness of data. That is, the economy needs to return to the realm of the stakeholders. It is difficult to emphasize the appropriateness and importance of this work.' Paul Singer, University of Sao Paulo and Secretary of State for the Solidarity Economy of Brazil. We have been falsely made to believe that competition is the way nature and society work. However, greed and competition are dis-values imposed by corporate rule. Both nature and society work on the principles of co-operation. In Capital and the Debt Trap - Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis Bruno Roelants and Claudia Sanchez Bajo show us how an economy based on co-operation can address the deep crisis we face.' - Vandana Shiva, Navdanya/Research Foundation for Science Technology & Ecology, New Delhi.
'This elegant and deeply-informed inquiry weaves together several themes, each significant in itself, even more so as their relations are developed: the deep and persistent crises of capitalism, in the current phase highly financialized, and the fundamental issue of decision-making in social and economic institutions, with special attention to the elaborate growth of cooperatives of many varieties, the forms they have taken, the problems they face, and their great promise in overcoming economic crises, social malaise, and democratic dysfunction.' - Professor Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA 'Capital and the Debt Trap combines a searing critique of the unstable debt- and-profit driven system that came close to final collapse in the Great Crisis with a fine portrait of the modern cooperative alternative that exists today in Mexico, Canada, France and Spain. Are these perhaps the small creatures that will survive and flourish after the great dinosaurs are gone? Let's hope so.' - James K. Galbraith, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and University of Texas at Austin 'This book is simply a masterpiece on cooperativism for the xxi century. It outstandingly demonstrates why cooperatives are more resilient to the crisis and avoid falling into the dept trap and its implacable cohort of inhuman effects. A decisive contribution not only to economic democracy but also to Democracy as a political system.' - Yves Cabannes, University College London 'This is a timely and important book which both analyses current economic turmoil and shows how the crisis may foment new and more co-operative forms of enterprise. Anyone interested in advancing the cause of participatory ownership as one means of guarding against recurrent crises should read this book.' George Irvin, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 'This book presents a thoughtful and exciting consideration of the roles cooperatives can play and should be expected to play today ... It deserves to be widely read and discussed within and across the boundaries that have long divided cooperative proponents and the general public.' Ian MacPherson, University of Victoria, Canada 'This book is a major step forward in understanding the working of co-operative economies. Its appearance could hardly have been more timely. At a point when the global financial system and the models of economic governance have been thrown into question, it shows how it is that co-operative financial systems are more crisis resistant than contemporary private banking, and how finance can be structured to service long term local and industrial growth rather than subject it to the imperative of short term profitability. More generally, the authors describe an architecture of co-operative governance that has not only been innovative and resilient but is particularly well suited to any post crisis world that is reshaped round multi stakeholder engagement.' - Robin Murray, LSE Global Governance and author of Co-operation in the Age of Google. 'This study on the current global crisis of capitalism is a surprising and fascinating analysis of the transformation that the current dominant world mode of production has gone through. The great merit of the book is to indicate the path to this change with great accuracy and richness of data. That is, the economy needs to return to the realm of the stakeholders. It is difficult to emphasize the appropriateness and importance of this work.' Paul Singer, University of Sao Paulo and Secretary of State for the Solidarity Economy of Brazil. We have been falsely made to believe that competition is the way nature and society work. However, greed and competition are dis-values imposed by corporate rule. Both nature and society work on the principles of co-operation. In Capital and the Debt Trap - Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis Bruno Roelants and Claudia Sanchez Bajo show us how an economy based on co-operation can address the deep crisis we face.' - Vandana Shiva, Navdanya/Research Foundation for Science Technology & Ecology, New Delhi.
Research Interests:
This chapter is grounded on the research published in the book Capital and the Debt Trap , learning from cooperatives in the global crisis by Sanchez Bajo & Roelants in 2011. The book provides an explanation of the global crisis that... more
This chapter is grounded on the research published in the book Capital and the Debt Trap , learning from cooperatives in the global crisis by Sanchez Bajo & Roelants in 2011. The book provides an explanation of the global crisis that broke out in 2007 and why cooperatives have been showing a relatively higher degree of resilience compared to other types of enterprises, generating genuine value and general wealth in a sustainable manner.
In this chapter we briefly review the path that has led us up to the latest debt trap with some recent considerations on the still evolving global crisis. We will focus on issues of resilience and sustainability. Not surprisingly perhaps, the Davos World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013 placed resilience and ‘Resilient Dynamism’ at its center. The argument here is that cooperatives are part and parcel of a new trajectory not only because they are resilient and dynamic but also because they steer away from debt traps, freeing up forces for development and enabling community change.
In this chapter we briefly review the path that has led us up to the latest debt trap with some recent considerations on the still evolving global crisis. We will focus on issues of resilience and sustainability. Not surprisingly perhaps, the Davos World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013 placed resilience and ‘Resilient Dynamism’ at its center. The argument here is that cooperatives are part and parcel of a new trajectory not only because they are resilient and dynamic but also because they steer away from debt traps, freeing up forces for development and enabling community change.
Research Interests:
This paper compares the situation and policies related to cooperative enterprises in the EU and Mercosur. Union Européenne et Mercosur : processus d’intégration régionale et politiques sur les cooperatives. Claudia Sánchez Bajo, Paper... more
This paper compares the situation and policies related to cooperative enterprises in the EU and Mercosur.
Union Européenne et Mercosur : processus d’intégration régionale et politiques sur les cooperatives. Claudia Sánchez Bajo, Paper 2006. http://blogs.univ-tlse2.fr/cerises/files/atelier-n10/RULESCOOPBRESTCommunicationClaudiaSanchezBajo.pdf Published in 2008 book « La Gouvernance des entreprises coopératives » Jorge Muñoz, Mario Radrigán Rubio et Yann Regnard (eds), voir http://www-connexe.univ-brest.fr/iae/mut-coop/docs/Gouvernance-des-cooperatives-ouvrage-2008.pdf
English title translation: European Union and Mercosur, Cooperatives in the regional integration process and policy. Published as peer reviewed, selected work, book chapter in French.
Creative commons licence added now to protect published work.
Union Européenne et Mercosur : processus d’intégration régionale et politiques sur les cooperatives. Claudia Sánchez Bajo, Paper 2006. http://blogs.univ-tlse2.fr/cerises/files/atelier-n10/RULESCOOPBRESTCommunicationClaudiaSanchezBajo.pdf Published in 2008 book « La Gouvernance des entreprises coopératives » Jorge Muñoz, Mario Radrigán Rubio et Yann Regnard (eds), voir http://www-connexe.univ-brest.fr/iae/mut-coop/docs/Gouvernance-des-cooperatives-ouvrage-2008.pdf
English title translation: European Union and Mercosur, Cooperatives in the regional integration process and policy. Published as peer reviewed, selected work, book chapter in French.
Creative commons licence added now to protect published work.
Research Interests:
Many countries are facing repeated cycles of violence (World Bank, 2011; Walter, 2010), with more than 68 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. In a quest for sustainable peace, a growing interest can be observed regarding how... more
Many countries are facing repeated cycles of violence (World Bank, 2011; Walter, 2010), with more than 68 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. In a quest for sustainable peace, a growing interest can be observed regarding how civil society and business can bring about peace. Cooperatives blend association and enterprise with significant potential for peace (MacPherson and Paz 2015; Joy and MacPherson 2007). As bottom-up initiatives, they provide solutions focused at the local level offering learning and practicing nonviolent interaction (Wanyama 2014; Sentama 2009; Havers 2007) and providing decent jobs and livelihoods (Date-Bah ed. 2003). The key word being supply, they are mainly seen as post-conflict community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide for basic human needs, gather labour, demobilize soldiers, and restart agriculture and services. Field observations, however, lend to a broader idea of how cooperatives contribute to positive peacebuilding by increasing trust and agency, raising empowerment, equality and empathy, while managing resources through a renewed notion of the commons (Ostrom 1990), even though challenges come as development takes place. Food security linked to SDG 2 can and need to be enhanced on this basis. The sample of visited cooperatives calls for further research. Paper based on 2018 field research.
Links: https://easychair.org/publications/preprint/W3mT
Links: https://easychair.org/publications/preprint/W3mT
Research Interests:
There is definitely the need the place cooperatives into current theoretical research and discussion. First, let's concentrate on the concept of growth both economic and business wise. Today, a policy shift is announcing another, a theory... more
There is definitely the need the place cooperatives into current theoretical research and discussion. First, let's concentrate on the concept of growth both economic and business wise. Today, a policy shift is announcing another, a theory shift that upholds cooperation at the center of our future. From neoclassical theory and Solow's model in which technological change was exogenous, neo-institutionalism and endogenous growth theory include increasing returns to scale and entrepreneurship, while markets are defined by imperfect information, imperfect competition, knowledge networks and business models centered on cooperation. Economic growth is concerned with the long-run trend in production due to structural causes such as technological growth and factor accumulation, but says nothing about factor depletion and technological change. GDP is portrayed as a positive sum game, but various examples disprove the assumption, such as in fiscal policy, deficit spending, the use of resources and clustering of wealth. This brief paper places cooperative enterprises amidst current theoretical debates.
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See the two pages for the summary of the PhD Thesis
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1999 academic peer reviewed article titled The European Union and Mercosur: a case of inter-regionalism, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 5, pages 927-941, October
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The article reviews the relation between two regional integration arrangements, the European Union and Mercosur, under three aspects: trade and investment, international negotiations and the institutional dimension. Tracing the agenda and... more
The article reviews the relation between two regional integration arrangements, the European Union and Mercosur, under three aspects: trade and investment, international negotiations and the institutional dimension. Tracing the agenda and issues dealt with between the two
Published in Third World Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 5, New Regionalisms in the New Millenium (Oct., 1999), pp. 927-941 (15 pages). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Published in Third World Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 5, New Regionalisms in the New Millenium (Oct., 1999), pp. 927-941 (15 pages). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Research Interests:
This is the general preparatory Dossier for the First EU Social Economy Conference in Central and Eastern Europe of 2002.
The Dossier was edited by Bruno Roelants. My contributions appear under my name.
The Dossier was edited by Bruno Roelants. My contributions appear under my name.
Research Interests:
This speech and slides presentation provides an overview of the evolution of studies on peace and cooperatives. On the one hand, what is peace and how studies and research on peace have evolved; on the other hand, where do cooperatives... more
This speech and slides presentation provides an overview of the evolution of studies on peace and cooperatives. On the one hand, what is peace and how studies and research on peace have evolved; on the other hand, where do cooperatives appear in this subject matter and what may be their contribution to peace building. It was given on 17 October 2019 at the International Conference Cooperatives for Development, Kigali, Rwanda.
Research Interests:
Cooperatives offer great potential in providing for common needs and aspirations. In the vast available literature on their experiential practices, they provide for systemic paths for development trajectories and address 'intersecting... more
Cooperatives offer great potential in providing for common needs and aspirations. In the vast available literature on their experiential practices, they provide for systemic paths for development trajectories and address 'intersecting inequalities'. Yet, being at the same time association and enterprise, they face collective action challenges that need special attention. In the first part, we will find out the place that the Post 2015 Millennium Development Framework has given to cooperatives. Selected cases are brought in to highlight what cooperatives offer in terms of approach to sustainable, peaceful and inclusive development. A discussion on cooperatives' potential and challenges for the Post 2015 Development goals follows.
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This presentation was on powerpoint and took place at CASC, within the SSHRC Congress in Canada.
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This is part of a series of think pieces by scholars and practitioners working on a broad range of issues within the field of Social and Solidarity Economy. The series is being published in conjunction with the UNRISD conference... more
This is part of a series of think pieces by scholars and practitioners working on a broad range of issues within the field of Social and Solidarity Economy. The series is being published in conjunction with the UNRISD conference “Potential and Limits of Social and Solidarity Economy”. The conference took place on 6-8 May 2013 in collaboration with the International Labour Organization and the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service.
Research Interests:
2016 Value chains and cooperatives (in particular in coffee). Peer reviewed article originally written in English and presented by Claudia Sanchez Bajo at a CASC Conference in Canada. Translated by Claudia Sanchez Bajo and published as... more
2016 Value chains and cooperatives (in particular in coffee). Peer reviewed article originally written in English and presented by Claudia Sanchez Bajo at a CASC Conference in Canada. Translated by Claudia Sanchez Bajo and published as peer reviewed article by the Revista del Centro de Estudios de Sociologia del Trabajo as “Las cooperativas en las cadenas de valor del café en Guatemala: su contribución al logro de objetivos sociales, laborales y ambientales”, by Claudia
Sanchez Bajo and Bruno Silvestre, Nr 8 Abril 2016, pages 35 to 74, ISSN 1852-4648, http://home.econ.uba.ar/economicas/cesot-numeros-publicados and
http://home.econ.uba.ar/economicas/sites/default/files/u14/Revista%208.pd
Sanchez Bajo and Bruno Silvestre, Nr 8 Abril 2016, pages 35 to 74, ISSN 1852-4648, http://home.econ.uba.ar/economicas/cesot-numeros-publicados and
http://home.econ.uba.ar/economicas/sites/default/files/u14/Revista%208.pd
Research Interests:
This Conference paper of 2015 is in the process of peer reviewed publication. It was presented at the ILO and ICA Conference on the Future of Work and Cooperatives in Antalya, November 2015. It traces the evolution of the concepts of... more
This Conference paper of 2015 is in the process of peer reviewed publication. It was presented at the ILO and ICA Conference on the Future of Work and Cooperatives in Antalya, November 2015. It traces the evolution of the concepts of cooperative enterprise and of work in the 20th century.
Research Interests:
It was often alleged that the most important obstacle to integration was the lack of political will.... This study attempts at analysing the interrelation between economics and politics in the integration process during the different... more
It was often alleged that the most important obstacle to integration was the lack of political will.... This study attempts at analysing the interrelation between economics and politics in the integration process during the different historical periods, and the periods of economic integration, cooperation and ‘concertaci6n‘ and their impacts on the process. Secondly, it deals with the formulation and implementation of the current Programme of Integration and Cooperation since 1985, and finally, the relationship between democracy and integration. The main objective is to identify the limits and obstacles in a process whose central aim is to create effective, stable and symmetrical interdependencies among the countries in the subregion.
Research Interests:
This chapter is part of a PhD thesis at ISS in The Hague, part of the Erasmus University, The Netherlands. The sectoral focus is not intended to provide a generalisation for a regional integration process as a whole. The choice is to... more
This chapter is part of a PhD thesis at ISS in The Hague, part of the Erasmus University, The Netherlands. The sectoral focus is not intended to provide a generalisation for a regional integration process as a whole. The choice is to concentrate on two similar sectors with important economies of scale, which are economically prominent and politically sensitive in the countries concerned, thereby likely to react to, and influence, regional integration policies. Given the lack of general theory and scarce analysis of the sub-national level and cross-national co-operation (as examined in Chapter 1), a sectoral focus is considered as a suitable starting ground for this research. Besides, the meso-level perspective is intended to reveal agendas and bargains (in Susan Strange’s words). The reasons for the selected approach and focus are expounded in Chapter 2.
The study reaches several conclusions as regards Mercosur’s regionalism during the period researched, and in particular over its sustainability and the role of business actors in the process.
First, regionalism is a regulatory process by which regional patterns of relations may be gradually institutionalised. These patterns would then tend to be co-ordinated in a regular fashion, embodying particular values and normative rules, and possibly formalised into new structures. Through a sectoral and meso-level vantage point, Mercosur’s regionalism is seen as a process based on certain values, conceptualised under the name of “open regionalism” and crystallised on the grounds of a coalition of interests (state and business). Such vantage point guided the understanding of regionalism: i.e., as a regulatory and policy-making process, through which regional patterns of relations enter a stage of institutionalisation in order to achieve sustainability.
Second, Mercosur’s success and sustainability has rested both on a coalition of interests as well as of actors’ participation in the process. In addition, although the general portrait of Mercosur is one of trade success and low degree of institutionalisation, a sectoral focus at the meso-level, based on a grounded qualitative analysis, has provided a qualified and more accountable view. The evidence showed that the sustainability of the Mercosur case has rested to a significant degree on the involvement and participation of business actors in various forms and degrees.
Third, as some interviewees asserted in 1995, the core of Mercosur’s regionalism was not about trade. At the end of the century, this understanding has been reaffirmed by academia. As discussed in chapter 1, the 1990s regionalism is ‘new’ because its core issues are not related to trade.
Third, the sustainability of regionalism appeared as constructed on a political-economic basis. On the one side, sectoral restructuring was done at the regional level through the enlargement of business scales and a sharper definition of business scope, with some holdings becoming core firms within each sector. Regionalism has been instrumental both to states and business in the 1990s context of globalisation of economic restructuring and of an emerging type of world-wide oligopolistic competition. This regional restructuring was embedded in the 1990s’ globalisation. During the research, the focus of Mercosur’s regionalism was to ease flows that were increasingly internalised by holdings and big economic groups, in terms of production, distribution and services, as well as information and management. On the other side, it involved a necessary correlation through regional norms and mechanisms to ensure the certainty of constant regular flows within Mercosur, be they capital, goods or services. Generalisations based on these two sectors, which have many features of their own, should be avoided until other economic sectors are studied. What is important to stress, is that any changes in systems of production need to be accompanied by appropriate co-ordinating institutions to suit the needs of emerging core firms or groups.
Thence, and fourth, during the period under study, Mercosur’s regionalism reflected a mixed-partnership in policy-making between state-officials and business-actors, within broader political regimes described as ‘delegative’ democracies by O’Donnell. The emerging regional policy networks have appeared sustainable, as long as their co-ordinating capability is not threatened to an absolute degree by e.g., external financial shocks. Contrary to the idea that the regional integration process has taken place under no supra-national authority combined with a loss of state co-ordination through the unravelling of ‘regulation’, a delegation from the state to business actors to define regional regulation concerning their industrial sectors could be observed. This included issues such as the CET, competition rules, harmonisation of technical norms, mechanisms to solve conflicts, etc., and tended to emerge through a negotiated convergence at the sectoral level. In this regard, states retained an important role i.e. in regard to the enforcement of the rules agreed. While states’ competition for investment influenced a debate on harmonisation of taxation, environment, and labour policies, which dealt with systemic costs to industry, business actors engaged in the building of sectoral regulation and governance through the supply of supranational institutions (norms, agreements, mechanisms of decision-making and conflict-solution) that could enforce common norms at the regional level.
Theoretical and policy/making implications and future directions for the study of regionalism in the new century are expounded in Chapter 10, which ends with brief commentaries on two issues rising through the analysis and writing of the thesis: a) the market as institution, and b) business scales and scope as underlining forces of the ‘globalisation’ of a capitalist net-economy.
The study reaches several conclusions as regards Mercosur’s regionalism during the period researched, and in particular over its sustainability and the role of business actors in the process.
First, regionalism is a regulatory process by which regional patterns of relations may be gradually institutionalised. These patterns would then tend to be co-ordinated in a regular fashion, embodying particular values and normative rules, and possibly formalised into new structures. Through a sectoral and meso-level vantage point, Mercosur’s regionalism is seen as a process based on certain values, conceptualised under the name of “open regionalism” and crystallised on the grounds of a coalition of interests (state and business). Such vantage point guided the understanding of regionalism: i.e., as a regulatory and policy-making process, through which regional patterns of relations enter a stage of institutionalisation in order to achieve sustainability.
Second, Mercosur’s success and sustainability has rested both on a coalition of interests as well as of actors’ participation in the process. In addition, although the general portrait of Mercosur is one of trade success and low degree of institutionalisation, a sectoral focus at the meso-level, based on a grounded qualitative analysis, has provided a qualified and more accountable view. The evidence showed that the sustainability of the Mercosur case has rested to a significant degree on the involvement and participation of business actors in various forms and degrees.
Third, as some interviewees asserted in 1995, the core of Mercosur’s regionalism was not about trade. At the end of the century, this understanding has been reaffirmed by academia. As discussed in chapter 1, the 1990s regionalism is ‘new’ because its core issues are not related to trade.
Third, the sustainability of regionalism appeared as constructed on a political-economic basis. On the one side, sectoral restructuring was done at the regional level through the enlargement of business scales and a sharper definition of business scope, with some holdings becoming core firms within each sector. Regionalism has been instrumental both to states and business in the 1990s context of globalisation of economic restructuring and of an emerging type of world-wide oligopolistic competition. This regional restructuring was embedded in the 1990s’ globalisation. During the research, the focus of Mercosur’s regionalism was to ease flows that were increasingly internalised by holdings and big economic groups, in terms of production, distribution and services, as well as information and management. On the other side, it involved a necessary correlation through regional norms and mechanisms to ensure the certainty of constant regular flows within Mercosur, be they capital, goods or services. Generalisations based on these two sectors, which have many features of their own, should be avoided until other economic sectors are studied. What is important to stress, is that any changes in systems of production need to be accompanied by appropriate co-ordinating institutions to suit the needs of emerging core firms or groups.
Thence, and fourth, during the period under study, Mercosur’s regionalism reflected a mixed-partnership in policy-making between state-officials and business-actors, within broader political regimes described as ‘delegative’ democracies by O’Donnell. The emerging regional policy networks have appeared sustainable, as long as their co-ordinating capability is not threatened to an absolute degree by e.g., external financial shocks. Contrary to the idea that the regional integration process has taken place under no supra-national authority combined with a loss of state co-ordination through the unravelling of ‘regulation’, a delegation from the state to business actors to define regional regulation concerning their industrial sectors could be observed. This included issues such as the CET, competition rules, harmonisation of technical norms, mechanisms to solve conflicts, etc., and tended to emerge through a negotiated convergence at the sectoral level. In this regard, states retained an important role i.e. in regard to the enforcement of the rules agreed. While states’ competition for investment influenced a debate on harmonisation of taxation, environment, and labour policies, which dealt with systemic costs to industry, business actors engaged in the building of sectoral regulation and governance through the supply of supranational institutions (norms, agreements, mechanisms of decision-making and conflict-solution) that could enforce common norms at the regional level.
Theoretical and policy/making implications and future directions for the study of regionalism in the new century are expounded in Chapter 10, which ends with brief commentaries on two issues rising through the analysis and writing of the thesis: a) the market as institution, and b) business scales and scope as underlining forces of the ‘globalisation’ of a capitalist net-economy.