ABSTRACT

This chapter offers a constructivist approach to the IPE of regionalism in South America, emphasising the two main ideational structures that constructivism observes in the unfolding of regionalism: collective identity and regional institutions. Given the absence of an encompassing South American regionalist project, the chapter focuses on the two main projects that have been advanced in the subregion, the Andean Community and the Mercosur. Through the analysis of some case studies of both projects, the chapter highlights the relationship between collective identity and regional institutions for explaining outcomes that could not be understood by focusing solely on the importance of material incentives. As a conclusion, the chapter shows that a constructivist IPE analysis of regionalism usefully complements the understanding of state action as benefit maximisation, and points out certain advantages of analysing ideational structures like collective identity and regional institutions in the unfolding of regionalism, like the importance of regionalism for constructing state identity, the relevance of institutional flexibility for maintaining regionalism, and the distinction of collective identity dimensions for understanding the interplay between identity and institutions.