1. Mexico: Perfect Dictatorship to Defective Democracy
Poli UBC
Max Cameron
March 22, 2016

2. Territory 1,9m km2 (2x BC)

3. Mexico: Basic Facts Population: 122 million (2013) Gini Index: 0.48
GDP (ppp): $1,3 trillion, 10k per capita
Poverty rate: 53 percent (World Bank
60 percent mestizo by mid-20th Century

5. Mexico’s Political Trajectory
Colonial past
From anarchy to oligarchy (the Porfiriato)
Revolution,
ISI and populism under Cardenas
Breakdown of PRI rule ( )
Mexico and NAFTA

6. Mexico: Structure

7. Mexico: Process

8. Colonial Past Mexico City seat of Aztec empire
percent indigenous
Large landed estates (haciendas) owned by criollos
Indian communal villages (ejidos)

9. Anarchy Between 1821-1860: 50 separate presidencies
Conflict between Liberals and Conservatives
Church owned half the land
Powerful regional caudillos

10. Oligarchy Rise of Porfirio Diaz 1876-1911
Concentration of land and capital
dispossession and landlessness
State – cientificos and positivists
Foreign investment promoted
Conditions of life for most
deteriorated in final decades

11. Revolution, 1917
revolution – revolutionary leaders drawn from lower classes (Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata)
1917 Constitution
Article 27
PNR forms 1927 – Plutarco Elias Calles

12. Depression and ISI Populism of Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940)
PRI – corporatism
CTM, CNC, CNOP
Nationalization of foreign controlled enclaves (creation of PEMEX)
System of exchange and reward for loyalty with selective repression (the “perfect dictatorship”): clientelism and camarillas.

14. Breakdown of PRI rule Period of high growth (1940s-1960s) ends
Tlatelolco massacre 1968
Electoral reforms in 1977
Split in PRI in 1987, FDN (later PRD) forms
President Carlos Salinas’ sexenio ( )
NAFTA negotiations – locks in neoliberal reforms. Side deal negotiations 1993.

15. Mexico Since NAFTA Zapatista uprising 1994
Ernesto Zedillo elected ( )
Mexico banking crisis and Tequila effect
2000 Election ends PRI rule, rise of PAN
Vicente Fox ( )
Felipe Calderon ( )
2006 drug war
Return of PRI under President Peña Nieto: plus ça change?

16. Conclusion Distinctive feature of Mexico: revolutionary experience
Political order guaranteed by corporatism and clientelism (the “perfect dictatorship”) has broken down
New challenges (insurgency, drugs)
Persistence of the “Mexican chip”