Executive-legislature relations in foreign policy: A case study in incipient regional integration

This article explores the role of the Argentine and Brazilian parliaments during the formative years of Mercosur with the aim of assessing how the specific model of ‘limited democracy’ may have had an impact on the course and shape of Mercosur. Although that integration process was essentially a governmental exercise, with only a marginal role for congresses, this article argues that this does not constitute in itself either a violation of constitutional provisions in the member states or a geographical anomaly compared to other constitutional traditions or to incipient integration processes elsewhere. Yet, perhaps ironically, the conclusion suggests that democratic limitations have fostered, rather than hampered, integration in the Southern Cone of Latin America.