Mexico’s Historical Foundations

Legitimacy ► ► Revolution of – Mexicans have admired revolutionary leaders throughout their history   Charisma is highly valued as a leadership characteristic ► ► Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) – helped legitimize the revolution, served as an important source of government legitimacy until the late 20 th century ► ► Constitution of 1917

“The Porfiriato” ► ► Porfirio Diaz ► ► Military general under Benito Juarez ► ► Staged military coup in 1876 ► ► Instituted himself as president of Mexico, promised he would serve no more than one term ► ► Ruled Mexico for 34 years with an iron hand ► ► Cientificos – young, educated advisors of Diaz that believed in bringing scientific and economic progress to Mexico

Influences of Porfiriato ► ► Stability – Diaz dictatorship ended years of conflict and chaos ► ► Authoritarianism – no sharing of political power beyond small, closed elite group ► ► Foreign Investment/Economic Growth – cientificos encouraged entrepreneurship and foreign investment, primarily from the U.S., resulted in growth of business and industry ► ► Growing Gap between Rich & Poor – as a result of development and industrialization

Influences of the Mexican Revolution ► ► Patron-client System ► ► Constitution of 1917 ► ► Conflict with Catholic Church ► ► Establishment of the PRI

Constitution of 1917 ► ► Ended the Revolution   Violence & political assassinations continued   Patron-client relationships important avenues to power ► ► Mexican constitution very long and easily amended ► ► Set up structure for Democratic Government (Political Institutions resemble those of the U.S.)   Three branches of Government   Competitive Elections   Most public officials directly elected by the people

Conflict with Church after Revolution ► ► Cristeros Rebellion (1920s) ► ► Hundreds of Thousands Killed (Priests murdered) ► ► Liberals legally separated Church & State, viewed church as a bastion of conservatism ► ► Priests continued to lead rebellions after Liberal changes, contributes to chaos of 20 th century

Establishment of PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) ► ► After years of conflict, President Calles brought caudillos (political-military leaders) together for an agreement in 1929 ► ► Attempted to bring all caudillos under one big, umbrella political party   Brought stability through the idea of “passing around” power from one leader to the next as presidency changed hands ► ► Sexenios – president could only serve one 6-year term ► ► Other leaders would be given major positions in government to establish their influence ► ► PRI- “institutionalized” the revolution by stabilizing conflict between leaders ► ► In power from

Cardenas Presidency ( ) ► ► Gave voice to peasant demands from the Revolution of 1910 ► ► Redistribution of Land – land taken away from big landlords, foreigners and redistributed to peasants ► ► Nationalization of Industry – foreign business owners kicked out of country, most industry put under control of the state. Ex: PEMEX – giant, government controlled oil company ► ► Encouragement of Peasant & Union Organizations ► ► Concentration of Power in Presidency – Cardenas stabilized presidency, when his sexenio was up he peacefully let go of power

Cardenas and ISI ► ► Cardenas’ strategy of state-led development known as Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)   Employed high tariffs to protect locally produced goods from foreign competition   Government ownership of key industries   Government subsidies to domestic industries   Government took lead in promoting industrialization (very little capital in private hands during this era)

The Pendulum Theory ► ► Miguel Aleman became president in 1946   Encouraged entrepreneurship   Foreign investment   Free-market strategies on exports ► ► Followed by president who returned to Cardenas- style reform ► ► Pendulum Theory – back-and-forth effect in Mexican politics from socialist reform to free- market economic development and back again ► ► By the 1970s the pendulum appeared to stop with the emergence of the tecnicos

The Tecnicos ► ► Tecnicos – educated, business-oriented leaders usually with degrees in economics, political science, business, etc. ► ► Tecnicos in the PRI support the free-market approach to politics ► ► By the 1980s Mexico had settled into an economic approach based upon Neoliberalism   Free markets   Balanced budgets   Privatization   Free trade   Limited government intervention in the economy

“Tecnicos & Politicos” ► ► By 1950s Mexico welcomed foreign investment ► ► GNP experienced spectacular growth until the 1980s ► ► This “Mexican Miracle” based largely on huge supplies of natural gas & oil ► ► Mexico became a model for LDC’s everywhere ► ► “Oil Bust” of the early 1980s, plummeting price of oil sunk the Mexican economy and inflated the value of the peso ► ► This caused added political tension within the PRI

Election of 2000 ► First time in over 70 years that a candidate from a party other than PRI elected president ► Also, first time that the presidential nominee of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) not chosen by sitting president, instead chosen through an open primary

President Vicente Fox ( )

President Felipe Calderon (2006- present)

The Dependency Theory and Mexico ► ► Economic Dependency – a less developed country is often dependent on developed countries for economic support and trade. Balanced trade is generally the key, a country is said to be “developing” when it begins relying less on the stronger country/countries to keep it afloat financially ► ► Mexico joined NAFTA in 1994   Trade between member nations increased, Mexico able to diversify and become less dependent on oil, but Mexico became more dependent on the US

Mexico in Transition ► ► Mexico characterized by economic and political transition ► ► Authoritarianism under the PRI has been replaced by competitive elections, although political hostilities still exist ► ► Economic dependency and underdevelopment slowly being transformed as public policies have been supportive of a free market economy, yet a backlash against neoliberalism has continued ► ► “Developed”, “Developing”, or “Less Developed”, how do we classify Mexico?

Today’s Policy Issues ► ► Growing gap between rich & poor ► ► Rapid/unplanned urbanization has led to rampant pollution

Issues of Democracy ► ► Election Reform   CFE (Federal Election Reform) – created as an independent regulatory body to safeguard honest and accurate election results   Campaign Finance Restriction – laws that limit campaign contributions   International Watch Teams – so Mexico could convince other countries that elections are fair and competitive   Election monitoring – done by opposition party members