Mexico CG terms

Mexican revolution of 1910-1917

• middle class mexicans overthrow of dictatorship (Díaz) bc wanted dem and capitalist econn vs. radical social reformers who wanted agrarian reform; ESTABLISHED PRI REGIME

  • Both sides of conflict wanted to secularize (weaken role of catholic church)

  • led to democratic reforms but no econ change

  • resulted in 1917 constitution

Cristeros rebellion

1926-1929; peasant uprising against the secularizing aspects of the 1917 Constitution. government won, but reopened churches.

mexican miracle

• 1940s-1980s; economic growth

• Mex became more indus, urban, and edu bc of authoritarian regime’s peace and stability and US investment

• Econ became heavily dependent on US

• solidified PRI’s authoritarian regime

• happened because of stable govt and import-sub industrialization policies

tlatelolco plaza

• institution of mex’s pre-hispanic, spanish colonial, and modern eras

• where the 1968 massacre of student protesters by govt occured

  • decreased govt legitimacy

  • increased calls for dem (anti-pri)

Zapatistas

people who don’t believe in the legitimacy of the mexican state

Zapatistas army of national liberalization (EZLN)

• Largely Mayan rebel group

Zapatistas uprising

1994;

• Many saw EZLN as an indig group wanting more autonomy for mex’s long-neglected native population

• However, also wanted dem of political system and end to neoliberal reforms that had ravaged indig poor

• Wanted the removal of article 27 from cons about land reform

• eroded pri dominance and sped up electoral reforms

Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)

• Political party that emerged from the Mexican Revolution to preside over an authoritarian regime that lasted until 2000, center-left

  • Goals; encompass all those who had supported the rev, its members ranged from socialists to liberals. end political violence by controlling political system and process of presidential succession

  • Designed to incorporate and co-opt orgs/interest groups/local govts, starting w/army

national action party (pan)

• conservative catholic mexican political that (until 2000) was main opp to pri

• PAN was founded in 1939 by defectors from pri as a conservative response to the leftist policies of the pri (1930s-40s)

  • More free market approaches, embracing globalization

democratic revolutionary party (prd)

• mexico’s main left party, started 1989

• Working class, populist

• Wants to increase govt services and create a buffer for inequality

catholic church

• institution that caused many cultural cleavages

  • peasants and elite

  • church and state: cristero rebellion

  • conservatives (support) and liberals (secularize)

Miguel Hidalgo (1810s)

• led the revolt against spanish rule in 1810s

• catholic priest

Porfirio Diaz (1870s-1910)

• Mexican dictator who ruled from 1876 to 1910 and was deposed by the Mexican Revolution

  • Had backed lib reforms from Juárez and fought to expel monarchy, but then embraced conservative ideas to gain elites’ support and maintain power

  • Imposed an authoritarian regime (the Porfiriato) and stabilized mexico

  • Mexico achieved immense econ growth (controlled by Diaz) by piggybacking on the American Indus Rev

Emiliano Zapata (1910s)

• Southern Mexican peasant leader of the revolution most associated with radical land reform

  • Advocate for the poor

  • Organized a peasant army to push for agrarian reform in south

Pancho Villa (1910s)

• Northern Mexican peasant leader of the revolution who, together with Emiliano Zapata, advocated a more radical socioeconomic agenda

Lazaro Cardenas (1930s)`

• Mexican president from 1934 to 1940, who implemented a radical program of land reform and nationalized Mexican oil companies

  • Created worker and peasant organizations and integrated them into pri 

    • Using the state to channel patronage to pri mass orgs, pri made indep mass orgs marginal and useless

    • made PEMEX (nationalist economic policies)

Vicente Fox (2000-06)

• conservative pan president, first non-pri pres in 7+ decades

• Fox was not a prototypical PAN leader; didn’t share much of the social conservatism PAN leaders tended to

Felipe Calderon (2006-2012)

• mexico’s conservative pan president 2006-2012, responsible for wagining a war against drug cartels that led to a major increase in violence

• Social conservative and supporter of free market policies

Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-18)

• Mexico’s president from 2012 to 2018, and the first PRI member to be elected president since the return of democracy in 2000

• opened PEMEX to priv investment

•  supported by conservative PAN, reformed the federal electoral institute and renamed it the national election institute (INE)

  • Gained power over local elections (more fraud)

  • Can annul results in close elections where candidates have overspent the legal limits

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018-2024)

• made morena party

•  leftist populist- wants to raise social spending to address inequality

• Obrador’s election in 2018 ended the liberalization of the oil industry (Pemex)

  • Halted foreign investment

  • Invested heavily in Pemex to boost production

senate

• upper house of congress

• 128 members

  • 3 senators from each state, additional 32 senators selected from a national lit on the basis of pr

• Fewer powers than lower house of congress

Chamber of Deputies

• 500 members, 300 smd and 200 pr seats

Supreme Court

• mexico’s highest court

• Became more active towards the end of authoritarian rule

• System is limited by widespread perception that judges (especially locally) are corrupt

  • Partially due to weakness of rule of law (from authoritarian rule)

• Currently in transition

Executive

• powers are separated

• strong bureacracy

Authoritarianism

• A political system in which a small group of individuals exercises power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public

• example: PRI in the 1900s

populism

• A political view that does not have a consistent ideological foundation, but that emphasizes hostility toward elites and established state and economic institutions and favors greater power in the hands of the public

• example: morena party

morena party

• New leftist political party formed by Andrés Manual López Obrador

• Further divided mex left bc weakened prd, but less institutionalized

• rebranding of PRD

Patron-clientelism

• Relationships in which powerful government officials deliver state services and access to power in exchange for political support

• example: pri

Camarillas

Vast informal networks of personal loyalty that operate as powerful political cliques

Corruption

• example: pri

Co-optation

• strategy of regime of absorbing dissenting indivs into their structure to neutralize opposition and maintain control

• example: pri

mestizo

a person with mixed spanish+indig heritage

Cientifico

Diaz’s circle of advisors

Sexenio

non-renewable 6 year term of mexican president

state corporatism

when the state incorporates social/econ groups into official, state-controlled bodies to be involved in decision making 

neo corporatism

system under which the state and major interest groups work together to manage the national economy through negotiation and consensus

Import substitution industrialization (isi)

• Political-economic model followed during the authoritarian regime of the PRI, in which the domestic economy was protected by high tariffs in order to promote industrial growth of imported g/s

• part of mex miracle

pendulum theory

metaphor for the back and forth movement of political power and ideology, swinging b/w liberal and conservative extremes

Neoliberalism

A policy of economic liberalization adopted in exchange for financial support from liberal international organizations; typically includes privatizing state-run firms, ending subsidies, reducing tariff barriers, shrinking the size of the state, and welcoming foreign investment

informal sector

sector of the economy that isn’t taxed/regulated by the state

formal sector

sector of the economy that is taxed/regulated by the state

Civil society

• not-state orgs that help ppl advance their own interests

• weak compared to other countries

Ejido system

system under which rural communities can collectively own and manage land

parastatal

• industry partially owned by the state

• example: PEMEX

PEMEX

state-owned oil monopoly

federal district

• official name for mexico city before it changed in 2016

• area that served as the seat of mex’s nat’l govt

Oportunidades

govt conditional cash transfer program designed to alleviate poverty by providing financial assistance to poor families in exchange for their children’s school attendance and regular health check ups

Maquiladora

foreign-owned or foreign-managed factory in Mexico that assembles or manufactures goods for export, primarily to the United States

Globalization

The process of expanding and intensifying linkages between states, societies, and economies