Dissemination and Translation of Public Policies for Rural Development in Mercosur

This paper discuss the performance of the Specialized Meeting on Family Farming of Mercosur (REAF) – an instance of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), which includes the participation of government actors and representatives of rural social movements – as a public forum and collective actor that coordinates a process of construction and dissemination of rural development policies in this region. Policies transfer analyses have been an object of growing interest in social sciences, often focusing on the role of national governments and bilateral relations. Concurring with studies that seek to amplify these reflections, addressing the role of international organizations, social movements and civil society in the dissemination of ideas, this paper analyzes the convergence of instruments and public policies for family farming (ex. institutional markets, family farming registers and land governance), and discuss the origin of these ideas (prevalence of some country or social actor), the power relations involved (coercive, voluntary or mixed actions) and the processes of copying or translation in each country. The results highlight the importance of REAF in the institutionalization of family farming, and the role of Brazil as an exporter of policies in this region. At the same time, it questions the prospect of a unilateral transfer process, arguing that the success of the REAF is linked to the active role played by governments of other countries and, above all, the engagement of civil society.