Regional Integration in Latin America - The Pacific Alliance a Way Ahead
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Regional Integration in Latin America - The Pacific Alliance a Way Ahead
Academic, English, Theses

Of Blind People, Elephants and the Pacific Alliance Integration: Institutionalist Account and Proposals For Change

Abstract:
The Pacific Alliance (PA) presents itself as a sui generis ‘mechanism for regional integration’ comprising Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. In this thesis, I examine the main institutional features of the PA, the factors that explain these institutional choices and to what extent its institutional framework is suitable to support the objectives of the PA in the long-term. The scope of the thesis is threefold: descriptive, explanatory and normative.

I take an interdisciplinary and eclectic approach to study the institutional dimension of the PA. I base my analysis on insights from new institutionalisms — constructivist and rational institutionalisms — while following a legal orientation when reading and applying new institutionalisms. I also employ international institutional law to assess the international legal status of the PA. At the methodological level, the thesis uses qualitative methods — doctrinal and empirical analysis — to address the research questions.

The core argument I develop in this thesis is that rational factors, such as cooperation problems and characteristics of the PA members in the aggregate, and ideational factors explain the PA’s institutional design. External institutional environments also contribute to explain PA’s institutional architecture. Institutional entrepreneurs have carefully crafted organisational and task-related decentralisation, the scope of issues covered, the rules for control, and the array of adjustability devices in its institutional rules. PA’s institutional design is also the result of the revisited neoliberal program amplified at the regional level through the open regionalism and deep integration programs and the frames of flexibility and pragmatism.

I contest, based on empirical evidence, claims about the sui generis nature of the PA’s institutional model of economic regionalism. I also challenge established views about its non-political and non-ideological foundations.

I demonstrate that the PA represents an informal intergovernmental institution (IIG). The PA is not an international organisation invested with international and domestic legal personality. Organisational structures in the PA follow a spectrum of formal and informal arrangements. These structures have, in many instances, responded to what I call demand-based or problem-based approaches in their establishment. Growth and specialisation of organisational structures take place through informal means, which evidences the effects of the ideas of flexibility and pragmatism that frame the PA and its regional integration process.

The thesis shows that the PA relies heavily on soft-law reinforcing its political basis. Mandatory commitments or hard-law approaches refer primarily to the construction of a free trade area as of today while soft-law is predominant in several areas that comprise its large economic and non-economic cooperation pillar.

I maintain that the PA’s current institutional framework does not equip it to respond to the needs for policy coordination and harmonisation, and the development of other regional public goods associated with the goals of its economic regionalism project.

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January 16, 2016by Ana Maria Palacio
Academic, Journal Articles, Spanish

Formal Institutions, Human Development and Entrepreneurship: A Comparative Study between Highly Developed Countries and Members of the Pacific Alliance

Abstract:
This paper compares highly developed countries
(Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Sweden, and Finland) and the four-member countries of the Pacific Alliance (Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Chile), trying to find possible relationships between formal institutions, rate of entrepreneurship and human development. It is a descriptive-correlational study which uses information derived from the World Bank’s Governance Indicators (2018), the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom (2018), the Global Entrepreneurship Index (2018), and the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index (2018). This paper concludes that there is a positive relationship between the quality of formal institutions and the level of human development in the countries that were compared.

Resumen:
El artículo plantea una comparación entre países con alto nivel de desarrollo
(Australia, Reino Unido, Canadá, Estados Unidos, Suecia y Finlandia), y los cuatro países que conforman la Alianza del Pacífico (Colombia, México, Perú y Chile). El objetivo es encontrar posibles relaciones entre las instituciones formales, el nivel de emprendimiento y el desarrollo humano. El tipo de estudio es descriptivo, con alcances correlaciónales. En la investigación se utiliza información de los indicadores de gobernanza del Banco Mundial en el 2018, el índice de libertad económica de 2018 de la Fundación Heritage, el índice global de emprendimiento de 2018 y el índice de desarrollo humano de 2018 del Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo. En los resultados se presentan las comparaciones y las correlaciones identificadas. La conclusión principal es la relación entre la calidad de las instituciones formales y el nivel de desarrollo humano en los países analizados.

Authors: Cesar Ignacio León Quillas, Hector Fernando Rueda, Carlos Hernán González-Campo
Spanish Title: Institutiones Formales, Desarrollo Humano y Emprendimiento: Un Estudio Comparativo entre Países con Alto Nivel de Desarrollo y los Países de la Alianza del Pacífico
Full document: 2020, Quillas, Institutiones Formales, Desarrollo Humano y Emprendimiento

January 14, 2016by Ana Maria Palacio

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Hello my name is Ana Maria Palacio. I have a PhD from the University of Melbourne. This blog is about my thesis project, the Pacific Alliance.

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