Mercosur’s Regional Policies in Higher Education: The Diffusion of Accreditation and Quality Assurance Policies

Abstract

The inclusion of social policies in the process of regional integration in South America is a recent phenomenon. The social agenda entered the policy debate because of a two-sided process that took place at the end of the ‘90s. First, the major and intense political, economic and social crises in some countries of the region led to uprisings and to increasing demands for change on the part of social movements and political actors. As a result, New Leftist governments came to office and prompted goals of social inclusion and economic recovery, changing the previous neo-liberal approach to development. Secondly, embedded in the previous process, the limitations of the previous models of regionalism provided fertile ground for the advancement of policies in non-trade agendas.