Regionalist governance in the new political economy of development: 'relaunching' the Mercosur

The splintering of the Mercosur following the Brazilian devaluation in earl y 1999 has given way to an important re-crafting of the regional vision and a significant expansion of the scope of the regional project. This article contends that these trends can best be understood as coalescing into a new (and nascent) form of regionalist governance in the Southern Cone, in whic h the Mercosur is reconfigured as a vehicle for a new set of developmentali st and strategic objectives. This emerging form of regionalist governance i s both causative and indicative of a new political economy both of the subr egion and of the wider region of the Americas, and reflective of the crysta llisation of a new political economy of development.