T
HE
D
OMESTIC
D
ETERMINANTS OF
L
ATIN
A
MERICAN
A
CTIVISM AND
I
SOLATIONISM IN
THE
U
NITED
N
ATIONS
: B
RAZIL AND
M
EXICO IN
C
OMPARATIVE
P
ERSPECTIVE
"Prepared for delivery at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the International Studies
Association, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 1-4, 2005."
Arturo C. Sotomayor Velázquez
Assistant Professor
Division of International Studies
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, CIDE
arturo.## email not listed ##
Abstract
For the first time, Latin America's two giants, Brazil and Mexico, are both under democratic
regimes. But the democratization of these two countries has led them into two very different
international paths in the United Nations. Brazil seeks to be a world leader in the forum, while
Mexico has pursued a passive role in the organization.
The paper explains why Brazil and
Mexico have pursued different strategies in the UN. It uses domestic politics variables to analyze
Brazil’s preference for activism and Mexico’s choice for relative isolationism. In particular, the
paper focuses on domestic processes and institutions to explain variation in behavior.
**The author welcomes all comments and suggestions. Please do not cite without permission. **
For suggestions on earlier drafts the author thanks Richard K. Betts, Page Fortna, Guadalpue
González, Olga Pellicer, and Alfred Stepan. The author also thanks Juan Alberto Moreno for his
research assistance.