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Mexico’s Political Culture

Mexico’s Political Culture. A Mishmash of Stuff. Oil. 1970s pressure from poverty rapid population growth questions about legitimacy Response investment in infrastructure & industry increased social spending decreased foreign capital

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Mexico’s Political Culture

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  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

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