Sustainable Governance Indicators 2017: Mexico Report (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mexico: A leader in search of like-minded peers
Over the last decade Mexico has chosen and has been forced to practice a sort of ''stand alone'' foreign policy, in part due to its marginalization in Latin America, in part due to the growing bilateralization of relations in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) context. The national narrative of acting as a bridge in economic terms for accessing the NAFTA market proved not very attractive to international partners. As a result, Mexico has become the classical ''leader without followers.'' Joining the MIKTA initiative, a grouping formed by Mexico, Indonesia, South Corea, Turkey and Australia, is a highly welcomed option for regaining international presence without the Brazilian shadow, so strong in the region, and for defining a specific intermediary role. Mexico clearly embraced a ''Southern'' identity only in very limited moments of its foreign policy history and always tried to maintain a middle way, as an agreeable voice and a helpful fixer for international conferences and meetings. The old/new formula that seems to feed Mexico's new international MIKTA presence is that of ''multiple memberships'' following a rationale of ''like-mindedness,'' a rationale that allows for promoting its presence in a great variety of institutions and regional integration schemes, but without compromising too much of its national economic development priorities. This article analyzes these half-way/soft doctrinal foundations of Mexican foreign policy with respect to Mexico's identification with and outreach to the MIKTA group, both in terms of collective action and of bilateral efforts to establish viable relations with its members.
By the end of the twentieth century, Mexico had convincingly positioned itself as one of the most promising emerging economies in the world. After several episodes of economic instability, marked by high inflation, fiscal excesses, and recurring financial crises, the country, following the economic orthodoxy of the time, experienced an impressive transformation. Moreover, Mexico's entrance into powerful trading blocs and groups that had included only more developed economies was seen as a promising sign. Heading into its first democratic transition in modern history, this geographically privileged, globally integrated, and resource endowed country seemed set for a prosperous future. Yet for at least two decades now, Mexico's economic performance has been disappointing. Having achieved average growth rates of almost 7 percent during the 1960s and 1970s, the country has settled recently for rates closer to 2 percent. In addition, both income per capita and total factor productivity have stagnated and remain close to 1980 levels. Consequently, during a period in which countries such as India and Chile almost doubled the size of their economies, Mexico's expanded by less than one-fifth. The conventional explanation for this lackluster growth is that the country is constrained by a series of flaws that continue to deter its growth.
Instituciones políticas, procesos de diseño de políticas y resultados de las políticas en México
2005
This paper uses a transaction-costs framework to link the policymaking process (PMP) and the outer features of public policies in Mexico, a middle-income developing country. It shows how a highly secretive PMP, centralized around the presidency, fashioned nationalist policies that were stable, adaptable, coordinated and private-regarding for the urban-based corporatist pillars of the regime. When growth faltered in the late 1970s, however, this PMP was unable to adapt to economic volatility, although it remained dominant in an increasingly turbulent polity. The paper explains how unified government and corporatist control of the economy made a constitutionally weak president the envy of executives around the world, even at the cost of being unable to enact reforms with short-term costs for the corporatist pillars of the regime. The article also explains why democratization in the 1990s is giving rise to a less centralized and more open PMP that benefits larger shares of the population. As the separation of powers enshrined in the 1917 constitution materializes, policymaking is increasingly wedded to the status quo. On the one hand, divided government preserves a macroeconomic framework consistent with an open economy (such as fiscally sound policies and a floating exchange rate). On the other, checks and balances are helping old and new parties and interest groups to veto agreement on the raising of chronically low tax rates (at 10 percent of GDP) and on reforming nationalist policies that limit private sector investment in the state-controlled energy sector.
Searching for Growth and Development in Authoritarian Mexico
2016
Mexico's pursue and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a pro-growth policy strategy that deepened Mexico's economic liberalization process at a time of crisis and macroeconomic stabilization. In that context, NAFTA constituted a commitment device to investment that ensured continuity to both the stabilization and the liberalization processes. NAFTA was possible for Mexico thanks to a new coalition between public and private elites that had recently gone through a deep transformation process themselves. After more than twenty years, NAFTA has significant results in terms of investment and levels and diversification of trade; however, the evidence on its impact in growth and development is mixed. The asymmetry of negotiation power between the United States and Mexico affected the agreement, but its final shape and implementation were impacted in important ways by Mexico's political realities. Two examples of this: The highly hierarchical, camarilla-style line of command of the Mexican team derived in in controversial concessions and strategic mistakes in the areas of agriculture and financial services. Later, a corporatist, authoritarian regime induced a weak supplementary labor accord that could have had the potential of effectively promoting higher equity through strengthened workers rights and more democratic industrial relations.
Foreign Policy and Governance in Mexico A Conceptual and Operational Dilemma
2008
(CISAN). 1 I thank Bernadette Vega, my research assistant, for her valuable support in the final editing of this text, originally presented at the Advanced Seminar Lecture Series on U.S.-Mexico Relations, sponsored by the UNAM's Center for Research on North America (CISAN) and MSU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, held in July 2008. 2 This concept has recently been coined to replace the term "globalization" in order to explain today's economic process, in which the aim is to improve macroeconomic indicators regardless of growing dependency and the widening gap between rich and poor. It is a neoliberal globalization emphasizing privatization, liberalization, free trade and widespread democratization, but using for these goals existing widespread technological innovations and generally disregarding the population's welfare.