Mexico's Political System
Posted: Wednesday, February 23, 2011
by Rose-Marie Chaperon
Chaperon Consulting, LLC
Mexican politics can best be described as a consistent revolution stained by political corruption and charismatic politicians. Though Mexico is currently a Federal Democratic Republic with a congressional system there remains a tremendous amount of power within the Executive branch where as the President is both the Head of State and supreme commander of Mexican armed forces. Mexico considered as a semi-authoritarian state does have a division between the Federal Government and State Governments (Castaneda, 2010).
Before going into detail about the most current political issues, it is important to understand the history of presidential elections and political climate of Mexico prior to 2006. Prior to the 2000 election the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) had dominated the political arena after the Great Depression. With the end of the Revolution and the creation of the Constitution of 1917 the PRI has dominated the political spotlight. The PRI having been the incumbent political party in office since 1929 all the way until 2000 was historically ended when PAN (National Action Party; conservative) political leader Vicente Fox, took the 2000 election with 43% of the popular vote. This leads into an interesting question as to why the PRI was in power for more than half a century.
Mexico has a presidential system with strong and independent legislative, executive and judicial branches. The president is elected by plurality vote for a six-year term and, unlike other Latin America systems, there is no second round. The Chamber of Deputies has 500 members, elected for a three-year term; 300 elected by simple majority in single-member districts, and 200 elected by proportional representation in five 40-member regional districts (Idea International , 2007). The Senate has 128 members, elected for a six-year term. Each state elects three senators, and in addition 32 are elected by proportional representation on a single nation list (US Immigration Support, 2010).
Mexico is bordered by the United States to the north and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. Mexico is about one-fifth the size of the United States. Baja California in the west is an 800-mile (1,287-km) peninsula that forms the Gulf of California. In the east are the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche, which is formed by Mexico's other peninsula, the Yucatán. The center of Mexico is a great, high plateau, open to the north, with mountain chains on the east and west and with ocean-front lowlands beyond.
In looking at the history of Mexico we found that the country has at least three great civilizations—the Mayas, the Olmecs, and the Toltecs—preceded the wealthy Aztec empire, conquered in 1519–1521 by the Spanish under Hernando Cortés. Spain ruled Mexico as part of the viceroyalty of New Spain for the next 300 years until Sept. 16, 1810, when the Mexicans first revolted. They won independence in 1821.
Analysis: This research provides statistical data, descriptive data, and limited analysis of selected aspects of the Mexican economic environment. The period of interest is 1990 through March 1994. Mexico's population as of the 1990 census was 81.5 million persons (Hunter, 1993) The country's estimated population as of early-1994 is 89.3 million persons (Banco Nacional de Mexico, 1994, p. 21). The rate of natural population increase in Mexico is 2.3 percent annually In the early-1990s, 72.6 percent of Mexico's population resided in urban areas Approximately 55 percent of the Mexican population lives in urban centers of at least 500,000 persons. The female/male distribution of the Mexican population is 50.6 percent/49.4 percent respectively (Hunter, 1993, p. 948).
Per capita gross national product in Mexico is US$1,730. Stated in American dollars, the per capita gross national product in Mexico has decreased one-sixth over the past ten years. The primary reason for this decrease is the fall in the international currency exchange value of the peso. Income distribution in Mexico is far more skewed than in the United States.
What is going on with Mexico's drug war? Why the War on Drugs? Why did President Calderón declare the war on drugs? In the last year of President Vicente Fox's administration there had probably been more incidents of violence related to drugs in some states of Mexico than in previous years. A third explanation given by the president was that the drug cartels had penetrated the political arena at the local, state, and federal levels to such an extent that Mexico was losing control of parts of its territory. Finally, President Calderón has argued that Mexico has ceased being simply a transit country and has become a country of drug consumption (Castaneda, 2010). ? Mexico's political system has, since the 1920s, deliberately ensured that the army is useless, because those armies don't overthrow their governments. The problem is that Mexico doesn't have a national police force like Chile or Colombia.
"American dream." For many, just gaining employment at a low wage job in the United States provides a much higher standard of living than in their home country. During the 1980s, the United States saw a significant increase in illegal immigrants from Mexico. Those from bigger cities such as Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City do not necessarily have a higher quality of life than those Mexicans residing in rural communities. Some illegal immigrants illicit the assistance of a "coyote", or smuggler, to help them navigate through the land and cross the border. For immigrants who are intercepted en route to the United States, they are usually returned to Mexican soil.
Increasingly, illegal immigrants and "coyotes" have tried to cross the border through the Arizona desert. Throughout the U.S. - Mexican border, more check points with U.S. border patrols have been added on the American side of the border. Many illegal immigrants save up money or borrow money to cover this fee (US Immigration Support, 2010). Once a Mexican immigrant successfully crosses the border into the United States, they generally have two main goals. Their first aim is to send part of their earnings back home to their family and their second goal is to bring more family members to the United States. Eventually they hope to gain permanent residency (green card) and possibly U.S. citizenship status (US Immigration Support, 2010)
What is in the future for Mexico? As Mexico's 2012 presidential election gets underway, a national conversation has finally begun on the country's future, the issue of how Mexico can become in the next 15 years what is call a "middle-class society" has taken center stage. Through public debates with declared presidential candidates, meetings with students, and discussions with businessmen and political activists in many corners of Mexico, many politicians have begun to move the country away from the body- and head-count of the country's bloody drug war, and its understandable obsession with violence and organized crime. Little by little, attention is focusing on how to revive the country's economy, how to create a relevant social safety net, how to construct institutions that allow Mexico to make decisions, whether it should focus on North America or Latin America, and what it should do about security and law enforcement.
The first is that Mexico has to accept the changes needed for its economy to grow. That means removing obstacles from an economy that could be growing at 5 or 6 percent per year and replacing Mexico's current economy, captured by monopolies of all stripes and colors, with a vibrant, competitive market economy. Mexico is more than ever dominated by public and private monopolies in industry, finance, commercial media, politics and labor unions. The only way to encourage social mobility and build a middle-class society is by opening it to foreign investment and global competition. Mexico has to choose once again, but this time democratically: North America or Latin America?
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