Regulatory regionalism and higher education in MERCOSUR: fostering development or enhancing marketization?

PERROTTA DANIELA

Democratic renewal versus Neoliberalism: towards empowerment and inclusion

Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2014; p. 161 - 179

Regional integration processes that were created during the nineties did not commonly address social policies, but deeply focused on trade liberalization strategies instead. However, certain schemes have included provisions for social policies within the overall integration agenda. This is the case of the Common Market of the South (aka MERCOSUR): an ?educational sector? was shaped in 1991 and has been in force ever since. This article introduces the assessment of MERCOSUR´s higher education regional policies in order to discuss policy diffusion processes and regulatory regionalism and its possible contribution to fostering the region?s development and autonomy. The aim is twofold: on the one hand, to assess whether regional integration policies have diffused to the domestic policy arena, generating policy impacts and institutional changes in the member States; on the other, to evaluate whether the regional policy is prompting a regulatory framework for higher education that could improve overall socio-economic development of the region or it is most likely to be perpetuating inequities and differences within and between countries. We proceed with a case-study approach, focusing on MERCOSUR´s regional policy for the accreditation and quality assurance of undergraduate university degrees