1. Mexico’s Political Culture
A Mishmash of Stuff

2. Oil
1970s
pressure from poverty
rapid population growth
questions about legitimacy
Response
investment in infrastructure & industry
increased social spending
decreased foreign capital
Used projected profits from rising oil prices to borrow money to pay for it
When the bottom fell out of oil prices, so did the economy

3. Economic Development
Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) vs. Neoliberalism
ISI focuses on
high tariffs to protect local goods
government ownership of key industries
subsidies to local industry
Neoliberalism focuses on
development of free market
private ownership
scaling back social welfare

4. Population and jobs
Mexico’s GDP less than the United States, yet more than China, Nigeria, and Iran
Big question is how to create jobs for millions of unemployed
At least half of the population lives below the official poverty line
Significant income gap
The bottom 60% only have 26% of the wealth
The bottom 10% only have 1.6% of the wealth
The top 10% have 41% of the wealth
economy cannot keep up with its population growth
state-owned industries do not grow quickly to create new jobs
those that do create jobs only a few for qualified people
Recent antipoverty legislation pays poor families a small subsidy, so parents can pay for basic needs and their children can stay in school
Legislation has also been created to give small loans (around $100) to people to create a small business

5. Rebellion in the south
Led by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) – centered in Chiapas
Created by poverty and human rights violations
Arbitrary detention and torture exists throughout the country, but are concentrated against native people
Guided by “Subcomandante Marcos”
1994 uprising
response to NAFTA signing
12 days of fighting led to a stalemate
rebels eventually forced into the countryside
Activity since 2005 has centered on large protests and internet postings.

6. Political Socialization
Schools which use government issued textbooks
The Catholic Church
Personal encounters with government officials
Participation in local organizations and popular movements
most NGOs are located in Mexico City
Through the media
Which was controlled by the PRI until recently
Very few people have access to newspapers
Televisa with its monopoly and relationship with the PRI

7. The Media
Between 1940 and 1990, the PRI owned key electronic media outlets
The result was little room for questioning of the government
The arrival of TV Azteca in the late 1980s has changed this
Televisa has had to give more coverage to opposition voices to remain competitive
Newspapers have enjoyed more freedom for a little longer.
However, that freedom has come with a cost of the murder of several hundred journalists
So, the PRI kept media under control with subsidies, bribes, and threats
However, many experts attribute the growing independent media in the 1990s as a key source of modern democratization

8. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)
Has no clear ideology
Anyone who wanted to be in politics, joined
The “backbone of the corporatist system”
president chose candidates
candidates indebted to party, not voters
former legislators moved into bureaucratic jobs
judges appointed by PRI-controlled Senate
The PRI manipulated election results, even when they would have won comfortably

9. Collapse of the PRI Two main reasons:
modernization: urban, educated, and middle class people are more aware of the outside world
policy failures
1968 standoff with student protestors which left 400 dead
1980s economic mismanagement of oil
rapid downturn of peasants’ standard of living
lack of reaction to the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City
Once change occurred, it did so rapidly. Opposition officials did not owe allegiance to the PRI, so they could demand more power.
Also, with economic mismanagement, the PRI no longer had the resources to provide patronage.

10. BUT…they are back
Enrique Pena Nieto

11. Women’s Issues 47% of university students are female
16% of Congress is female (compared to the U.S.’s 14%)
They have served as governors, party presidents, and on the cabinet
A women’s movement is difficult to organize due to class divisions
Women make up the majority of workers in foreign factories