MERCOSUR Citizenship: Failed Transition from Economic to Political Integration?

Abstract

The concept of MERCOSUR citizenship, based on the freedom of movement and the equality of civil and social rights, intended a transition from a strictly economic regional integration to a political one. However, the weaknesses of the regional process (such as the slowness of the internalization of regional regulations, the heterogeneities in that internalization and the concurrence of other regional processes) hamper the consolidation of a regional regime of citizenship, leading to inequalities incompatible with the very concept of citizenship. MERCOSUR, citizenship, economic integration, political integration, freedom of movement, equality, UNASUR