In: Briceño-Ruiz, J., Ribeiro Hoffmann, A. (eds) Handbook of South American Regionalism. United Nations University Series on Regionalism, vol 37. Springer, Cham.

This chapter explores the relationship between regionalism and democracy in South America, highlighting the role of regional organizations in promoting and protecting democracy. It examines how, since the 1990s, an increasing number of regional organizations have adopted democratic norms and mechanisms to promote and protect democracy. This has resulted in the emergence of overlapping democracy clauses, which can have positive effects, such as the diffusion of democratic norms, but also negative effects, such as institutional redundancy, conflicts over the meaning of democracy, and competition between regional organizations when responding to political crises. In terms of the application of regional democracy clauses, some early successes, such as the prevention of democratic backsliding, have increasingly been overshadowed by failures where regional responses have proven ineffective. While regional cooperation in support of democracy flourished in the 1990s under the auspices of a broadly shared democratic consensus, the subsequent creation of overlapping democracy clauses has led to competitive dynamics and, more recently, stalemate.

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