Actualización: Paper

Aquí el resumen a un paper en inglés que acabo de escribir para una clase de "Governance and Policy Processes" (Gobernabilidad y Procesos de Políticas)

Explica algunas de las razones institucionales y culturales por las cuáles Costa Rica se atrasó tanto en ratificar el CAFTA y, por lo tanto, que debe tomar en consideración la UE para las negociaciones próximas que tendrá con Costa Rica para finiquitar un acuerdo de asociación.

Espero poder publicar el paper pronto.

Alejandro Beeche Van der Laat

Summary:

Costa Rica has just ratified the CAFTA agreement with the USA through a referendum and still has 13 complementary laws pending to be passed by congress in order for full ratification to start, while the other Central American countries and the Dominican Republic have already ratified and have CAFTA in effect. It is not a coincidence that Costa Rica has been delayed entering the CAFTA agreement. It is due to a political, institutional and cultural framework that characterizes it. First, Costa Rica has a proportional representational electoral system which allows for a multiparty system in congress. It has a legislative single chamber assembly of 57 members represented by 8 different political parties, which makes consensus between them difficult and arduous. Secondly, Costa Rica’s constitution has a strong contrast between individual and collective rights, which allows its Supreme Court to bounce around interpretations favoring one set of rights over the other. CAFTA was seen by many lawyers and politicians as unconstitutional. Long, heated debates about CAFTA’S constitutionality arouse and it was finally sent to the Supreme Court, which declared it abiding with the constitution. Finally, Costa Rica has a very centralized government that lacks proper integration of the state with society’s needs. This institutional framework, combined with a political culture that for more than a decade has not taken big decisions concerning the political and economic model to adopt in this fast-moving globalized world: through a market-oriented process or through an interventionist state, define Costa Rica’s role in CAFTA. CAFTA’S ratification through a referendum is a clear-cut image of the institutional and cultural framework in place in Costa Rica: (1) A congress that was not able to vote for or against CAFTA; (2) A constitution that may interpret CAFTA as unconstitutional; (3) a political body that has not decided what political economy model to follow; (4) and a society divided between free trade and protectionism. It is necessary for the EU to understand this framework in order to effectively negotiate with Costa Rica an Association Agreement.