ACTING ALONE? GOVERNMENTS, CIVIL SOCIETY AND REGIONALISM IN SOUTH AMERICA

The paper analyzes the new stage of regionalism in Latin America, characterized by three 'returns': the return to a leading role of the State, the return to politics in regional relations and the return to development and social agenda in the context of the emergence of new regional bodies of interstate character and a new role for their presidents. Within this framework, we analyze the role of civil society and appeals to citizen participation, especially in relation to social inclusion agenda in the regional agenda. The main argument in this paper indicates that, despite the existing appeals, from 2005-2006, the mechanisms of participation of social movements and civil society in general, in regional organizations, tended to decrease in the same way that the ability to focus social non-governmental actors on the formulation and implementation of a regional social agenda, increasing the existing social deficit in the regional context. In order to substantiate this argument is analyzed the evolution of these mechanisms and social actors traditionally involved in the regional agenda. Adapted from the source document.