Multilevel Governance in South America: Borderline Mercocities and Mercosur Regional Integration

Abstract

Based on data collection about national borders in South America, it was possible to observe that cities started to play an important role in public policies for regional integration. In order to understand these agents and how multilevels of governance in borderlines agendas are working on, the following analysis were conducted by: i) the mapping scenario of borderlines cities in South America; ii) and the Mercocities Network as an example of multilevel governance in the current process of regional integration of borderlines agendas. The results show that, despite the existing shared knowledge about public policies among South-American cities, the Mercocities Network also changes the political dynamic in the region by transferring part of border integration responsibilities from MERCOSUR national States to cities. Keywords: Cities; Borderlines; Governance; Mercocities; Integration