In: Brigitte Weiffen, Cláudia Alvarenga Marconi, Isabela Agostinelli dos Santos, Lucas da Silva Tasquetto, Marília Carolina Barbosa de Souza Pimenta, Thauan Santos (eds.): A União Europeia como ator global: desafios e oportunidades lidos desde o Brasil. São Paulo: Editora Dialética, pp. 80-103. 

Abstract in English:

In 1948, the Organization of American States endorsed democracy as a common norm, and in 1949, the Council of Europe became the first organization to provide for the possibility of suspending states that engage in undemocratic behavior. Since the end of the Cold War, a growing number of regional organizations (ROs) around the world have followed these pioneers in formally embracing democracy as a common norm and adopting institutionalized mechanisms to promote and protect it. This chapter assesses and compares the current state of regional democratic norms in Europe and Latin America, focusing particularly on South America. We present a typology of regional democratic norms and map their adoption by different ROs in Europe and Latin America with different objectives, with the aim of identifying patterns and raising questions about the strength of their commitment to democracy. We focus in particular on the European Union (EU) and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) as organizations whose democratic norms have evolved significantly over time, explaining why these advances have taken place and analyzing the main similarities and differences between them.

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