Blind spots in democratization: Sub-national politics as a constraint on Mexico's transition
Titel:
Blind spots in democratization: Sub-national politics as a constraint on Mexico's transition
Auteur:
Cornelius, Wayne A.
Verschenen in:
Democratization
Paginering:
Jaargang 7 (2000) nr. 3 pagina's 117-132
Jaar:
2000
Inhoud:
This article argues that Mexico, after nearly seven decades of highly centralized, presidentialist rule, is moving toward a political system in which power is contested actively and continuously between centre and periphery. State governors and other sub-national political actors have become more assertive in national politics, and they have greater financial resources under their control, due to fiscal decentralization. Now operating in an increasingly competitive electoral environment, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has switched to a primary system for selecting its presidential candidate that inevitably rewards the state and local PRI machines that deliver the vote for the winning candidate. Under these circumstances, the very different sub-national political regimes that coexist inside Mexico may function more as obstacles to the completion of the democratic transition than as breeding grounds for further democratizing advances, as the 'periphery' is often viewed in the contemporary Mexican politics literature. Drawing on evidence from five types of centre-periphery confrontations during the presidency of Ernesto Zedillo, it is argued that the re-emergence in the 1990s of strong, sub-national political regimes that are resistant to control by the President and other central political actors is likely to prolong Mexico's democratic transition and increase its unevenness.
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