The emergence of overlapping regional democracy clauses in Latin America: Causes and dynamics

• In Event: Regional organizations and the defense of democracy in Latin America

Abstract

For a long time, the Organization of American States (OAS) used to be the prime institution in the Western hemisphere to deal with the defense of democracy. Currently it is increasingly challenged by sub-regional organizations like the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) who have adopted their own democracy clauses. This paper explores the phenomenon of institutional overlap in the regional regime for the protection and defense of democracy in Latin America. Recent scholarship has presented a number of explanations for the emergence of international norms and has studied institutional overlap as well as norm diffusion – in particular the diffusion of European Union policies and rules to regional organizations in other parts of the world. Yet, none of these approaches accounts for the proliferation of democracy clauses within the same region. Thus, this paper specifies the conditions under which an existing set of institutions provides a template for new institutions, serves as a starting point for institutional learning, or generates policies of intentional deviation and distancing. Tracing the trajectory within the most important regional organizations, the paper analyzes how different causes for the establishment of democracy clauses are associated with different mechanisms of institutional diffusion.

Author

• Brigitte Weiffen, University of São Paulo