Mexico: Sovereignty, Authority, and Power

Mexico: Sovereignty, Authority, and Power John Anderson

History • History of authority • Spain -> Varied Mexican regimes -> Mexican Revolution -> PRI -> Modern Era

Regime Change over Time • Subject to Spanish rule and oversight (Spanish territory) • Monarchy (First Mexican Empire) • Republic (First Mexican Republic) • Monarchy with supreme authority from France (Second Mexican Empire) • Republic turned corrupt (Porfiriato) • Corrupt republic from the start (PRI) • Actual good republic (Present)

Legitimacy • Still working on it • Slowly getting better

.. Sovereignty • President has great deal of power; a heavy hand has a history in Mexico • Largely implicit Can I be YOUR President?

Authority • Institutions getting better; reforms under way • Institutions are generally seen as legitimate from a rule of law standpoint

Power • Extragovernmentalpowers exist (drug cartels and • Government is fighting these Heisenberg’s Turf

Current Political System • Liberal Democracy - Young • Transition to pluralism from corporatism • Three main parties: PRI, PAN, and PRD. PRD PRI PAN • Large government oversight of economy

History of Rule – Spanish Rule • 1521 – 1821 • Part of Viceroyalty of Spain • Spanish had best interests of Spain in mind over those of its terrritories

History of Rule – First Mexican Empire • General Agustin de Iturbide • Helped win control from Spain • Ended with Plan of Casa Mata Just look at these sideburns

History of Rule – United Mexican States • 1824 Constitution established the institutions of the new regime • Really muddled • Second Constitution in 1857 more radical than first Constitution

History of Rule – Second Mexican Empire • French rule • Short-lived My moustache will singlehandedly win all of Mexico

History of Rule – Porfiriato • Porfirio Diaz “won” five consecutive elections • Great years economically

History of Rule – Mexican Revolution • Political turmoil • One fifteenth of the population died

History of Rule – PRI • National Revolutionary Party -> Institutional Revolutionary Party • Mexican Miracle 1940-1980 • Authoritarian at times • Starts falling apart in 1980’s, when economy goes through troubles • Election fraud

Mexican Miracle • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ozAc-Vmbu0

Mexican Miracle • https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_pp_kd&scale_y=log&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=country:MEX:USA&ifdim=region&hl=en&dl=en&ind=false&icfg&iconSize=0.5

History of Rule – Modern Day • Right-leaning PAN first won provincial election in 1986 • Left-leaning PRD split off from PRI in 1989; more truly socialist than PRI claimed to be

Political Culture • National identity has bred some level of nationalism • Authoritarianism

Sources • https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mx.html#Econ • http://www.history.com/topics/mexico • http://www.infoplease.com/country/mexico.html • http://www.geographia.com/mexico/mexicohistory.htm • http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/History/Mexico-history.htm • http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/institutional-revolutionary-party.html • http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Institutional_Revolutionary_Party.html • http://countrystudies.us/mexico/84.htm • http://mexicanhistory.org/firstempire.htm • http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/1821-1935_(Mexican_Empire) • http://www.oas.org/juridico/mla/en/mex/en_mex-int-text-const.pdfhttp://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/02/the-history-of-the-mexican-constitution/ • http://www.thefreedictionary.com/authority

Mexico: Sovereignty, Authority, and Power