Mexico

1. Mexico

2. Mexico’s Key Institutions • Before 1924: • Presidents came/left office • Not normal way • Ousted by elite, military coups, violence (assassinations) • Four Constitutions since Independence • Little constitutionalism • Presidents: • few limits on powers • Construct personalistic dictatorships • True of 3rd World Politics • Make own rules

3. Mexico’s Key Institutions • Change? • Est. 6 year terms • Stability settle for the rest of the century • Military answered to the PRI president • Personality of the President • Clientelistic System: • major groups have been co-opted into cooperation • Have a stake in the system • Input in the government policy • Peasants • Land reforms • Workers • Unions • Bureaucrats • jobs

4. The Six-Year Presidency • Combines head of state and chief of government • 20th century more powerful the U.S. Pres. • PRI pres. had a PRI maj. in congress • 2000 election • Fox: PAN • Congress: PRI • Made Fox less powerful • 1st taste of “divided government”

5. The Six-Year Presidency • PRI: • Succession was in hands of presidents • Not always a well-known person • Pres. And Past Pres. Would determine party nomination (called Dedazo) • Candidate never lost • Until 2000 • Won 90% of votes • Would not look into corruption • No choice was absolutely predictable • Once in office departed from previous policies

6. Mexico’s Legislature • Bicameral Congress • Congreso de la Union • Less important the presidency • PRI would out supporters in congress • Elections changes • 1986 Election Reform Law • Mixed member system • Single member district seats • Plus additional seats based on each party’s share of the popular vote (proportional representation [PR])

7. Mexico’s Legislature • Upper House • Camara de Senadores (Senate) • 128 seats • 6 year terms • 96 seats filled by single member districts • 32 by PR • Lower House • Camara Ferderal di Diputados (Federal Chamber of Deputies) • 500 seats • 3 year terms • 300 seats filled by district voting • 200 by PR in five regions

8. Mexico’s Legislature:2005, PRI biggest party but no longer a majority

9. Mexico’s Legislature • 1997: • PRI lost its majority • PAN and PRD could out vote PRI • From opposite ends of spectrum • Agree only in their dislike • PAN = Free market and curb on spending • PRD is the exact opposite • Pan can do little in congress • Majority status = unlikely • Cooperation from PRI = very difficult • Deadlock doomed FOX

10. Mexico’s Dominate-Party System • “One-Plus” party system • Dominated by parties so big seldom lose • Other parties are legal • Dominate in media and civil service • Voters acknowledge big party may be corrupt • Voters like stability and prosperity • Dominate party does not deliver: losses hold

11. Mexico’s Dominate-Party System • PRI: • Founded by Calles in 1929 • Revolutionary and socialist • Cardenas and Alvarez • Leftist- Anti United States View • Most moderate centrists • Calles and Cardenas • Designed with four sectors • Strong patronage network • Increase educated middle class sectors less important • Votes have shrunk • Still wins Central Mexico • Gubernatorial elections possible good showing In 2006 elections

12. Mexico’s Dominate-Party System • PAN • Founded 1939 • Opposition to Calles anticlericalism • Felt martyred by PRI government • Catholic and Business (1980) • Coexist but could pull apart • Best Showing in Northern Mexico • Vote for Fox was not a vote that they had become conservative Catholics • Vote against PRI • Not expected to win 2006 election

13. Mexico’s Dominate-Party System • PRD • Partido Revolucionario Democratico • Founded 1989 • 2005 won the governorship of the southern state of Guerrero • Cuauhtemoc Cardenas may have won in 1988 (PRI rigging) • Cadenas and a leftist part of PRI split from PRI • Split over Free-market policies • Little support= uphill struggle • Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (ALMO) strongest candidate for president in 2006

14. Mexico’s Dominate-Party System • “Former dominant-party System” • PRI has weakened • Bilateral Opposition (left PRD; Right PAN) • PRI decline • Corruption • Growth of educated middle class • On way to multiparty or two-plus party

15. Mexican Federalism • 31 states and Federal Districts of Mexico City • Distrito Ferderal, DF (equivalent of our D.C.) • Each state has a governor, one time 6 year term • Unicameral legislature • Concentrates power in the center (i.e. Soviet Union ) • PRI hand picked state governors • Most Presidents served as governors • States get revenue from National Gov’t • i.e. food chain

16. Mexican Political Culture • Hard to comprehend b/c it is dysfunctional • Several cultures • Indian passivity • Spanish greed • Catholic mysticism • Populist nationalism • European: • Anticlericalism, liberalism, anarchism, positivism, socialism • Mexico is regionally, socially, and culturally badly integrated • Political culture was brought over in waves • Never really “set in”

17. Mexican Political Culture: Mexico’s Indian Heritage • Indian • Found in remote villages • Food • Religions: blend of pre-Columbian religions and Spanish Catholicism • Use to blood sacrifice • Aztec+ early Mexican societies • Strongly hierarchical • Peasants taught to defer to social superiors • Spanish took over use to subordinate behavior • Forced labor of haciendas or silver mines • Spanish Conquerors were make • Mestizos: of mixed descent • Mestizaje (intermingling of Spanish and Indian) cultural and social thing

18. Mexican Political Culture: Mexico’s Indian Heritage • Latin Americans • Free of racial prejudice • Money and manners count more • Right language and culture • “Money Lightens” • Whites • University, entering a profession, making lots of money, living in a nice house • Mexicans (Indian descent) • High risk of infant death, malnutrition, poverty, and lowest paying jobs, unemployment • Historically better than US • Nonwhites can rise to the top • i.e.: Juarez (Indian); Cardenas (mestizo) • Economic and politics (most have been white) • All Mexicans celebrate the country’s Indian heritage

19. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • Continent is a reliquiario • A place for keeping saints, a piece of the true cross • Sale of Old ideologies • Liberalism • Positivism • Socialism • Rural socialism • Anarchism • Anticlericalism • Fascism • Communism

20. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • Liberalism • 19th century • Rejected monarch; open society to new forces • US- took naturally to philosophy of freedom; LA did not: encumbered by inherited social positions, big bureaucracies, state-owned industries • No middle class, no liberalism • Economic neoliberalism: building free markets

21. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • Positivism • Improve society through science • Brazil motto “Order and Progress” • Diaz centificos typified the positivist spirit • Conflicted with liberalism

22. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • Socialism • Europe: worked they had a lot of industry • LA: had little industry • No working class = no socialism • Mexico invented and “coddled” unions to look like a working class • Some still see it as the Answer for Mexico • Poverty

23. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • Rural socialism • Reject industry; favors small farms • Returning to rural idyll of equality and sufficiency based on family farming • Zapata was its hero • Idealizes the past • Not enough land • Peasant farming = poverty

24. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • Anarchism • Primitive socialism • Argues end of national government = erase class differences • Several revolutions were influenced by anarchism

25. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • Anticlericalism • Founded by French writer Voltaire • Calles claimed church • had too much power • Favors the rich • Keeps Mexico Backwards • Did Catholic church really have that much power?

26. Mexican Political Culture: Imported Ideologies • Fascism • Founded by Mussolini; copied by Hitler • Combines nationalism, corporatism, fake socialism • “Fascism with sugar” • Not sweet and welcomed Nazi War criminals • Cardenas hinted at national socialism

27. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • Communism • Marxist socialism • Called for an end to continents drastic • Inequality • Poverty by the state taking over production • Ending US exploitatoin • Popular among intellectuals

28. Mexican Political Culture:Imported Ideologies • So addicted to ONE ideology • Fail to notice the rest of the world has discarded them • Communism has collapsed • Europe and Soviet Union • Meaningless in China • Alive in Cuba

29. Patterns of Interaction • Calles and Cardenas • Co-optation • Promised peasants and labor a “good deal” • Rural and workers unions • Became demanding • Government crushed them • Professing socialism • Tolerated no competition from Communists • Mateos arrested communist; broke up strikes • “Fakery” in PRI • Served themselves

30. Patterns of Interaction • Tried to co-opt students • Nearly a free education • Employed them as civil servants • Cannot work forever; lack of money • Students #’s and discontent grew • Accused PRI of abandoning it commitments to social justice

31. Patterns of Interaction • President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz • Obsessed with order/tolerated no criticism • 1968 Mexico City Olympics • Feared student protest • Mar his picture of a modern/happy Mexico • October at the Plaza of the Three Cultures • Police gunned down 400 student protesters • What PRI could not co-opt they crushed • Turning point in PRI rule • The point at which it visibly began to destabilize

32. Politics inside PRI • Two major factions; • Politicos (politicians) • Populist seeking elected office • Pay attention mass needs and demands • Pay little attention to economic needs • Run up huge deficits (leads to inflation) • Diaz (64-70), Echevarrria (70-76) Lopez Portillo (76-82) depended on oil

33. Politics inside PRI • Two Factions: • tecnicos (technicians) to the world Technocrats • Tried to fix the economy • Worry less about mass demands • Free market • Fewer government controls • Neoliberalism

34. Politics inside PRI • Hurtado (82-88) and Gortari (88-94) • Presidents • Tried to stabilize the fiscal chaos by overspending • Fiscal technicians • PRI implemented free markets • Reforms PAN also sought • Provided insufficient regulation • “freed” banks made bad and crooked loans • Financial sector crashed in 1995 • Peso lost its value • GDP declined by 6.2% • Mexicans grew poorer • The Problem • Not education • Part-way economic reforms that provide freedom without rule of law • Expansion = crashes • Fox could accomplish very little

35. Mexican Catholicism • Sleeper in Mexican Politics • Roman Catholic Church • 90% Mexicans are Catholics • Spirit since revolution has been secular • 1910-1920 Revolution….saw the church as upper-class conservatism • 1917 Constitution: imposed limits • Land, educational institutions, and religious orders • Found secret convents and closed them • Priests travel in ordinary clothing w/o collar • 20th Century the Church was put on the Defensive

36. Mexican Catholicism • Church never gave up • Catholic teachings • Lay organizations • Schools • University • 1939 founding of PAN • Set the stage for the return of the Church • Modern business-oriented future

37. Crime and Politics • Most powerful interest group: Crime • Politics: the means of influencing the state • Crime: the means of avoiding the state • Each side understands each other • Politics needs money/pay little attention from where it comes • Crime needs protection of politics to continue it enterprises • Weak State politics turns violent • Crime with little fear of the state, ignores their powers

38. Crime and Politics • Pancho Villa • Blended banditry and revolution • Madero (1914) • Assassination of top leaders was common • Still exist: nosy journalists, zealous prosecutors, and aides to Cardenas

39. Crime and Politics • 1994 killings • Paved way for Fox’s victory in 2000 • Luis Donaldo Colosio • PRI candidate to succeed Salinas • Killed with a shot to the head in Tijuana • Shooter was apprehended, but not the one who ordered the hit • Jose Ruiz Massieu • PRI Party secretary General • Shot dead • Salinas brother was charged with the hit/ serving 50 years • Salinas ends his term in disgrace /exiled in Ireland • Massieu brother was assigned to investigate but resigned • Accused PRI bosses of complicity and coverup

40. Crime and Politics • Good: • Two new trends: • PRI was stinking more and more • Mexicans were sufficiently educated and sophisticated to see the system for what it was • System of control and co-optation that could work amid ignorance and poverty could not work amid a substantial middle class • 2000 marked ir first turnover in the power another could mark a stable Mexican democracy

41. What Mexicans Quarrel About:Population and Jobs • Population Explosion • 1934: 16 million • 1960: 34 Million • Growth rate 2.8% • 1.2% a year • Power of the economy can sovle the population explosion • Middle class naturally = smaller families • Mexican rate is down due to emigration • US rate is up die to immigration

42. What Mexicans Quarrel About:Population and Jobs • Quarrel about how to make jobs for the millions of unemployed and underemployed • Institutions and economy cannot keep up with population growth • Zapatista dream: • Redistribution of land • Will not work b/c not enough land to distribute • State-owned industry • Grow slowly and employ few • PEMEX • Generates lots of money • Not a lot of jobs

43. What Mexicans Quarrel About:Population and Jobs • 4% of Mexicans own Mexico’s wealth • 40% live below the poverty line • No jobs and no land • Mexicans flocked to cities • Shanty towns • Sell small items or stolen items • 22 million Mexican’s work for the “informal economy” • Black market • Pay no taxes • Contribute to the growing deficit • Mexico City • Over 10 million strong • One of the largest cities in the world • Worlds worst air pollution

44. What Mexicans Quarrel About:Population and Jobs • Interior South Mexico • Extreme poverty • Zapatista rebellion started in 1994 • Leader: “Subcomandante Marcos” • Interviewed with face covered • Speaks eloquently • Accurate about Mexico’s history of exploitation and poverty • PRI’s betrayal of its promises to “uplift” the poor • Embodies the romanticism of the Revolution

45. What Mexicans Quarrel About:Population and Jobs • Distribution of income • Mexicans go hungry • Many do not earn the minimum wage ($4.50 a day) • No money to save • Insufficient capital for investment and growth • Middle class people save • Generate capital for investments • Poor: • Trouble acquiring skills • Schools are inadequate in rural Mexico and shantytowns • High crime rates = little foreign investment • Poverty leads to more poverty • Escape: sneaking into the United States

46. What Mexicans Quarrel About:Population and Jobs • “Cures” • PRD • Populists, leftists, trade unionist, nationalists • Want to keep or restore state-owned industry • Privatization of Pemex is deemed a sellout • Mexico’s constitution prohibits any private ownership (foreign or domestic) • Lack of investment and shortages • US trained economists • State-owned industry are stagnant, inefficient, corrupt, and employ too few • People are Panistas or PRI tenicos • Recent presidents have liberalized the economy (Fox wanted to go further)

47. What Mexicans Quarrel About:Population and Jobs • Oil • Skews development away from • Long-term and balanced growth • Employs few • Concentrates wealth • Makes country dependent on rise and fall of oil prices • 1970 new fields were found in the south • Echeverria and Lopez spent like crazy • Felt rich • Inflation and 1995 crash of the peso ended that thought • Squander new oil reserves • To present the illusion of wealth • “Oil is kind of a drug that induces illusions of grandeur”

48. What Mexicans Quarrel About:Population and Jobs • If PEMEX was privatized • Mark the coming of Mexican economic maturity • The “gringos” • Want your oil • Will pay for it • Will bring new technological inprovements

49. The NAFTA Question • Globalization • Does it really exist? • Does it uplift the poor countries? • Cross out globalization and put “China trade” • Latin America plays a minor role • Stagnant economic growth • Proof it does not work in LA • Strict class structure

50. The NAFTA Question • Gap between rich and poor is increasing • Inequality grows as economy modernizes • Economy grows = middle class • Inequality will dwindle • So far has created few miracles in LA