Interest Representation in Argentina and Brazil: Patterns of Inclusion and Exclusion in the Beginnings of Mercosur

This article addresses the characteristics of interest representation in two countries (Argentina and Brazil) of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the effect these characteristics may have in the process of regional integration as an instrument for social and economic development. Specifically, it analyzes the mechanisms by which some interests have been represented and others have not, assuming regional integration implies an emerging political arena, where processes of inclusion/exclusion of different economic, social and political interests take place. Attention is concentrated in business associations’ and labor unions’ influence in government decisions regarding regional integration during the first years of Mercosur. The analysis is oriented to demonstrate that their weakness in articulating varied interests favored decisions which express particular relationships instead of aggregated preferences, this being an obstacle for the creation of broad and long-standing visions of development and progress, visions which are necessary to support long-standing projects such as regional integration. By doing this, the article offers new elements to analyze and explain limits of regional integration in the South Cone, as well as to understand representation as a further regional challenge.