Central American Integration System

Abstract

The Central American integration presents a number of interesting elements for scholars and political analysts. In the first place, it is one of the few regional integration schemes that is not limited to economic objectives alone and claims, at least in theory, to have ambitious political goals. Indeed, the present integration organism called the Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA—Central American Integration System), has set among its objectives the establishment not only of a free trade zone, but also of a common market and, in the long run, of a political union. Secondly, it also presents a number of original characteristics that deserve particular consideration, such as the fact that the last wave of regional integration started with the establishment of a directly elected parliamentary body, the Parlamento Centroamericano (Parlacen—Central American Parliament), and that the original purpose of this process—not unlike the early efforts in European integration— was to strengthen internal and regional democratization and pacification. Furthermore, it is one of the rare cases of a regional integration scheme where the judicial organ, the Central American Court of Justice, is entrusted with supranational powers and enforceability of its rulings (at least in theory). Still, despite some initial success, the present-day integration process stagnates and regresses at times, while democratic legitimacy elements remain weak and, on occasions, wither. The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the current regional integration process from the point of view of its democratization using the qualitative macroindicators set by International Democracy Watch (IDW) as guidelines, to examine the gradual reversal of the initial drive towards political integration and to draw perspectives for the future.