La complejidad y tensiones de la sociedad civil en las negociaciones del ALCA: entre la participación reglada y la movilización contestataria (1994-2005)

Abstract

This paper aims to review complexity, differences and tensions in Civil Society`s participation around continental negotiations on free trade in order to create the finally aborted Free Trade America´s Area (FTAA). This process constitutes a key case to analyze the diversity of actors and interests signified by the concept Civil Society, as to the matters and scopes of its participation, also the need to link those positions with states and state coalition strategies, in this case around the character and in last, the very existence of the multilateral continental free trade treaty. We hope to illuminate with a comprehensive reconstruction how this process produced a complex field of interactions between state actors and non state actors coalitions related to the FTAA project, and doing so, to understand the different uses, meanings, and strategies about International Civil Society.