comp gov: mexico

mestizo

A person of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry

Ameridian

A member of any of the indigenous peoples of the Americas

Miguel Hidalgo

Mexican priest and revolutionary regarded as a national hero in Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain by initiating a peasant revolt against Spanish rule in 1810

Constitution of 1857

A constitution written after the war between Mexico and the United States that incorporated many liberal goals. It established a system of democratic government involving a bill of rights, and limited the power of the Roman Catholic Church

Porfiriato (1876-1911)

The dictatorship established by Porfirio Diaz. It was an authoritarian regime, which was first embraced for its sustained stability in the country but soon would become resented

Porfirio Diaz

A popular retired general who took power and established a dictatorship in 1876

cientificos

A group of advisors, or scientists, who advised Diaz in the Porfiriato. They wanted to adopt European technologies and values, as well as increase foreign investment

Revolution of 1910

Overthrow of dictator Porfirio Diaz. Many were angered by the increased foreign investment and globalization of Mexico. The revolution led to the creation of the modern Mexican state with the constitution of 1917 and is still a source of national pride. After the revolution Mexico became much more isolated

Sonoran Dynasty

A group of revolutionary leaders primarily from the north. Members of the dynasty went on to form the PRI and the first PRI president Plutarco Calles was a Sonoran politician

Constitution of 1917

Made after the Mexican revolution, established strict term limits and sexenios. This is still the constitution that they use today but it is quite easy to amend and has been amended many times

Anticlericalism

The act of going against the church and opposing its influence on politics.
Mexico adopted anticlericalism with the constitution of 1917, making laws to limit the church's influence. PAN opposed these laws and constitutionally challenged the PRI

Plutarco Elias Calles

Supreme leader of the Sonorans and founder of the PRI who brought together the most powerful contenders for leadership and created a political party where various interests were accommodated in order to avoid political violence and thus have a prosperous country as well as greater power. This helped ensure nonviolent conflict resolution among elites and uninterrupted power for the PRI for 70 years

Lazaro Cardenas

President from 1934-1940, distributed land in the form of ejidos, encouraged workers to form unions, expanded the role of the state as he encouraged investment in industrialization, ISI, and placed the petroleum industry under his control

Ejidos/Ejidatarios

Ejidos are government owned plots of land distributed to peasants for farming. Ejidatarios are the people who work said plots of land

Patron-clientelism/camarilla/clientelism

Clientelism was the foundation for the PRI's support. It entails government officials exchanging goods (food, land, education, etc.) in exchange for political support. Often popular in rural areas where people need access to these social services.

Miguel de la Madrid

The president during the 1985 earthquake of Mexico City. He was widely criticized for his response to it, as well as allegations of election fraud for the handling of the next president's election that resulted in a PRI victory

Carlos Salinas

He was the president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. He was one of the most unpopularly elected candidates in history, and was elected under heavy allegations of election fraud. He made many economic reforms, privatizing large portions of the Mexican economy, and created NAFTA with the US and Canada. He became extremely unpopular when it was revealed that he had poorly handled the Zapatista Uprising, and the high profile assassinations of both his successor and Salinas's brother in law.

NAFTA

NAFTA is the North American Trade agreement. It was founded in 1994, and opened up free trade between America, Canada, and Mexico by eliminating tariffs and barriers to investment. It was controversial, and led to worries about job loss, corporations taking over, and a loss of efficiency with new global players. It was officially disbanded in July of 2020 and replaced by USMCA.

USMCA

USMCA is the United States- Mexico - Canada agreement. It was enacted in 2020 as an updated policy to replace NAFTA. It still centers around free trade, but has more modernized language regarding intellectual property, and environmental protections

EZLN

The Zapatista National Liberation Army or EZLN is a guerrilla group founded in 1993 named for Emiliano Zapata. The group's goal was to achieve greater political and cultural autonomy for the indigenous people of Mexico, and they don't like NAFTA

newly industrialized country (NIC)

Countries that have developed a strong industrial base and have grown faster than most of the lesser-developed countries (Mexico and Iran), in Mexico: rising middle class, diverse economy because of NAFTA

corporatist state/ state corporatism

A state in which interest groups become an institutionalized part of the state structure

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

President from 2018-2024. He is a part of the Morena party. He used to be the leader of the PRD between 1996 and 1999. In 2012, he left the PRE and formed the Morena party

Enrique Peña Nieto

Nieto was the president before AMLO, he served from 2012 to 2018. He was a part of the PRI. Nieto reformed Mexico's energy reform by liberalizing Mexico's energy center.

PAN

PAN was formed in 1939 as an opposition to the PRI's anticlericalism. It is generally right wing and supported by people from the North. Some of its core beliefs are less government and more freedom for business, fair elections, regional autonomy, and support for private and religious education.

PRI

The PRI was founded in 1929 and it was the dominant political party in Mexico until 2000 when it lost the presidential election to PAN. It was formed by elite politicians and maintained power through the patron-client system, voter fraud, and corporatism. On the political spectrum it is considered center, but over the years it has swung between left and right wing as well.

PRD

Formed in the late 1980s, the PRD has been a major political party recently in Mexican politics. It is generally a left wing, populist, and nationalist party that was formed in response to failures caused by the PRI. The PRD however has gone downhill recently and was effectively replaced by Morena due to little organization and strong division within the party itself.

Morena

Morena is a leftist, populist, and generally nationalist political party in Mexico that was officially created in 2014 by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador(a former member of the PRD). AMLO created it to pursue his own objectives since the PRD was internally divided. Morena as of now is much more successful at winning seats and elections than the PRD is.

State capitalism

A combination of traditional state economic planning and elements of free market competition, including openness to free trade and foreign investment.

Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)

A theory of economics typically adhered to by developing countries or emerging market nations that seek to decrease their dependence on developed countries. Under ISI theory, the process makes local economies, and their nations, self-sufficient. They decrease trade by increasing tariffs in order to promote the domestic economy.

Mexican Miracle

The period of extreme economic growth within the Mexican economy which began in roughly the late 1940's and slowed down in the early 1970's.
The PRi's economic policy of Import Substitution Industrialization was the main reason behind this boom. Even as the country got richer many parts of the country, especially in the south did not see the same results of the PRI's miracle

Green Revolution

Coinciding with the Mexican Miracle, the Green Revolution was the rapid growth of the Mexican agricultural industry. Mexico went from a large food importer to a country with a quickly growing population and a large food surplus. The uncontrolled industrialization and lack of regulation led to massive environmental blowback.

Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)

A corporatist organization that represented the interests of laborers under the PRI. The CTM leaders secured votes for the PRI in return for favors such as access to public resources like jobs, land, public services, etc. Laborers benefited from this relationship through increased wages and more security in maintaining their jobs. They were the most well organized and powerful of the three corporatist representation organizations at the time and this system worked well until PRI's legitimacy began to be challenged by the people, who questioned whether the PRI was truly representing their interests.

Informal sector

The urban poor population who could not afford to buy the sophisticated products supplied by Mexico's manufacturing industries and instead developed their own informal system of producing and selling their own goods and services.

Stabilization agreement/international monetary fund

Economic development strategy that emphasizes subsidies for key domestic industries and other protectionist trade policies

Structural reform

1988 to 1994. Government adopted neoliberal economic reforms such as, free-market and privatization of previously state owned industries. Also, land was divided into individually owned plots, allowing farmers to be more independent of government (Ejidos)

Neoliberalism

reduce government regulation and spending (change from state controlled to privatized)

Maquiladoras

New factories that were built on border of Mexico and US provide jobs (mostly low pay)

Cleavages

coinciding: geographic cleavage (North vs. South)
- North: rich, mestizio, industrialized
- South: poor, Amerindian, agricultural economy cross-cutting: religion (the vast majority of Mexicans are Catholic)

Sexenio

the single, 6-year term served in office by Mexican presidents; grants the president extensive executive authority and power, but is checked by the principle of non-reelection

Reforms of the 1990s

following the 1982 oil crisis, neoliberal economic policies are implemented to limit the government's role in the economy and promote free trade; most notably, Mexico joins NAFTA in 1994, linking Mexico's economic future to international market forces (and especially the US economy)

Politicos

People who are professionally engaged in politics as their career. They (likely) studied law as their field and use that prowess to propose and execute in political office.

Tecnicos

Bureaucrats who use technical expertise, reasoning, and skills as opposed to political rationale in their creation of public policy. They tend to have degrees in economics or management or a similar technical field.

Bureaucracy

An organization that is structured hierarchically. Usually in government, ower level officials would administer regulations and codify rules that specify impersonal, objective guidelines for making decisions. In Mexico, for an example, the president's cabinet members or secretaries would lead different bureaucracies concerning issues like foreign affairs or agriculture.
Officials of a specific administrative bureaucracy would be organized in a hierarchy while it would be led by a member of the cabinet who then answers to the president.

Parastatal Sector

a government-owned corporation or agency

PEMEX

Mexican state owned petroleum company that is managed and operated by the national government. One of the world's largest fossil fuel exporters.

Military

The Mexican Armed Forces are split into two entities - the Army and the Navy. Mainly used to combat the drug cartels and settle domestic unrest.

Judicial Branch (Judicial Reforms)
(inquisitorial to adversarial)

Mexico has state and local court systems. In the Supreme Court, judges are nominated by the president and serve for 15 years. A 2008 judicial reform changed Mexico's judiciary from an inquisitorial system to an adversarial system by calling for the introduction of public trials with oral testimony and the presumption of innocence.

State and local governments

Each Mexican state has its own constitution, executive branch, unicameral legislature, and judiciary. Municipalities are governed by popularly elected mayors and councils, but most municipal governments are poor and lack well-trained and well-paid officials (which makes them particularly susceptible to being corrupted/intimidated by powerful drug cartels)

Congressional elections

The election of representatives in congress. (ex. Americans electing Senators or Representatives into Congress, Mexico's electing senators or representatives into the Chamber of Deputies) Mexico's Congressional Elections are a mix of SMDP (Senators 300 CoD) and PR (200 CoD)

First Past the Post (FPTP)

An election method where the person with the most votes wins the position or seat, a majority is not needed to win. (ex. 1st has 45%, 2nd 24%, 3rd 20%.
First place gets the seat). Mexico uses a FPTP to elect Senators into the 128 member Senate although they are instituted as pairs with a run off for where the first senator in the second pair gets the third seat. Also used in the Nationwide Presidential Election

Proportional representation

An election method where the distribution of positions or seats are divided up proportionally to how the votes were divided in the initial election (ex. 1st has 45%, 2nd 24%, 3rd 20%, other 11%. First gets 45% of seats, 2nd 24% of seats...) Mexico uses a PR election to elect members into the Chamber of Deputies for 200 seats and 32 Senator seats

Legislative electoral system (overview)

Chamber of Senators: Of the 128 senators that make up the upper house, 96 of them are chosen through the three-seat constituency for representation from the 31 states and Mexico City. In each district, 2 senators from each party run together as a party ticket and voters will vote for the party they want to be represented by. After the votes are counted, the party with the most votes wins 2 of the senate seats for their state, and the runner up party wins the last seat. The 32 remaining seats are selected through nationwide proportional representation, so voters vote for their preferred party and are able to split
Chamber of Deputies: The 500 members are elected through a mixed system of SMDP and Proportional Representation. 300 are selected through FPTP.
The remaining 200 seats are elected through 5-district, 40-member, proportional representation.

Chamber of Deputies

The larger of Mexico's two legislative bodies. 300 members are directly elected by district, and 200 are assigned proportionally, giving smaller parties a chance of representation.

Senate

The smaller of Mexico's two legislative bodies. 96 are elected by district, with the top party sending two reps, and the second place party sending one per district. Another 32 members are elected by nationwide proportional representation.

Gender quotas

Requires political parties to have a certain percentage of female candidates run for FPTP positions and/or have a required percentage of female candidates placed in proportional representation seats based on the votes earned by the party.

Presidential elections (how they work)

The presidential elections are based on a plurality system, in which multiple parties run and get portions of the popular vote through direct election of the population. The candidate who wins a plurality of votes, or the largest percentage but not a required majority, is elected president. The president is elected for a sexenio, or a six-year term, and can only serve one term and cannot be re-elected.

Election of 1988 (Fraud?)

The election of '88 was essentially the first competitive election since PRI took power in 1929. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the PAN party went up against the PRI candidate Carlos Salinas, and it was declared that Salinas won with 50.7% of the vote (the lowest winning margin of the PRI in history at that point) but Cardenas had been favored to win the entire time. The results are widely considered to be fraudulent, a result of the PRI resorting to electoral fraud to maintain power. There were widespread protests but Salinas took power regardless.

Election of 2000 (PRI loss)

The election of 2000 was a monumental turning point in Mexican governmental history because this marked the first time in 90 years that an opposing party won the presidency. Vincente Fox, representing the PAN party, took down Francisco Labastida of the PRI party, gaining 43.43% of the vote.
In the congressional elections, Alliance for Change emerged victorious claiming the Chamber of Deputies with 224 out of 500 seats. In the Senate, the PRI won 60 out of 128 seats

Election of 2006

In 2006, Vincente Fox was replaced by another PAN candidate named Felipe Calderón. Gaining only 36.6% of the vote, Calderon managed to out-weight his PRD opponent by just .6%. This election caused a lot of speculation and controversy to the point where AMLO (the PRD candidate) pushed for a recount of votes. This request was rejected by the Federal Electoral Tribunal, Calderon was officially declared as president on Sept 5

Vicente Fox

Born in 1942, Fox was a businessman and politician who was president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. As a member of the PAN Fox focused on trade relations with the US and fought for the rights of indigenous people of Mexico while reducing crime and corruption.

Felipe Calderon

Oversaw the passage of legislation to reform Mexico's judicial system, and he worked to strengthen the energy sector, increase the number of jobs, and fight crime and drug cartels

one-party dominant system

A system where one party continuously wins elections even though there are opposition parties. This was the case for the 70 years that PRI was the dominant party in Mexico.

Pluralism (in Mexico)

A system where multiple groups share power, but each individual group keeps their identity. In Mexico an example would be how Mesitzo and Indigenous Mexicans have both kept their culture and traditions in society but share political power.

Pragmatism (as it relates to political parties)

The PRI is one of the more pragmatic parties in Mexico. It tries to appeal to a wide audience while not having a very strong ideology, like the PAN and PRD (and now MORENA) do.

INE (National Electoral
Institute)

After the 1988 elections, where there were allegations of voter fraud, the PRI faced international pressure, from countries including the US, to have more fair elections. The IFE (now INE) was created to count votes and monitor elections.


After the IFE was created, the margins by which the PRI won became much closer, giving opposing parties more legitimacy. Eventually, Vincente Fox from the PAN became the first non-PRI president.

Pact de Mexico

National political agreement signed by various Mexican leaders on December 2nd, 2012, one day after the inauguration of the Peña Nieto administration.
The pact is divided into 5 parts: Vision, Agreements, National Budget Agreements, Work Method, and Commitments for the Reforms. It is based on three guiding principles: strengthening the Mexican state; democratization of the economy and politics, and the expansion and implementation of social rights; and the participation of citizens as key actors in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies. The pact has resulted in the passage of an education reform bill, a legal reform bill, a telecom reform bill, and an energy reform bill.

Political culture

The shared beliefs and feelings of a population about the rules that govern behavior in their political system and their political system in general.
Politically, Mexico has two main regions that have distinct views. The northern region is largely industrialized and tends to have more conservative political opinions. The southern region is largely rural and tends to have more progressive political views. Mexican political culture is also influenced by nationalism, Revolution of 1910, and critical junctures throughout its history.

Globalism / Globalization

The process of interaction and integration of governments, economies, and cultures around the globe. This process has increased because of technological advancements. Globalization has increased the creation of international groups such as the UN, foreign direct investment, trade, and shared culture norms.

National Identity

Mexico has an incredibly strong sense of national identity, largely based on common history (The Revolution of 1910, Cárdenas Administration), dominant religion (Catholicism), and a shared language (Spanish).
This national identity has had strains placed on it as Mexico integrates into and embraces its place in a global economy, thus limiting its sovereignty.

Migration

Especially since NAFTA (now USMCA) was signed into law in 1994 and Mexico has become increasingly globalized, large numbers of Mexican migrants enter the United States as workers and send back cash remittances to families in Mexico. However, contrary to popular belief, prior to COVID-19 and the Trump Administration, migration between Mexico and the United States was practically net-zero; the largest source of migration at the Northern border has been migrants from Central America moving through Mexico.

Human rights

The lack of human rights (including free speech and assembly, free and fair elections, and the lack of responsiveness from the government) is a major reason why the PRI started being heavily challenged in the 1980's.
In 2000 Fox pledged to work to improve the state of human rights in Mexico by appointing human rights activists to his cabinet and requiring secret police and military fields to be open to the public. He also called for more transparency from government ministries, specifically about the rights of their workers. His actions to improve human rights have been very impactful as seen by the increase in accountability for government officials and efforts by the National Humans Rights Commission.
However many challenges with human rights accountability are still a major issue today. For example, the judicial branch is weak and has little experience handling human rights cases. There have also been concerns that the military is taking control over law enforcement because of the war on drugs and that they are abusing their power. Although human rights are much more likely to be protected than in the past, there is still a lot more work to be done by the government to protect the people.

GDP

Sum of country's goods and services, used to measure economic growth.
Mexico's GDP increased rapidly during the "Mexican Miracle" due to Import Substitution Industrialization.
Remittances (money sent home by migrants) account for 2% of Mexico's GDP
today.

Pendulum Theory

Pendulum Theory is based on the idea that a political party can swing to the left or right depending on who is leading it. In Mexico, the PRI is an example of this theory. Because PRI leaders have been on both sides of the political spectrum, the PRI is often considered to have a centrist ideology.