Abstract
Over the course of three decades, Mercosur has passed through several phases and faced different crises. Although its members have maintained a consensus on its importance for the region and as an instrument of international insertion, the current moment marks an exception with the contesting position of Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. This article aims to discuss how the tension between the defenders of a deeper Mercosur and a purely commercial Mercosur has affected the institutionality of this process over time, caused crises and relaunching. The argument of this article is that the failure to build a consensus on the meaning of cooperation in Mercosur and its objectives has provided a fragile institutional framework, susceptible to setbacks in the integration process.
Keywords:
Mercosur; State Capacity; Integration; Institutionality