Mexican Government In Transition

An exploration of the interrelated trends of Mexico's transitional politics and society. Offering perspectives on the problems on the Mexican agenda, the authors discuss the politics of change, the challenges of social development, and how to build a mutually beneficial US-Mexico relationship.

This book is a collection of essays on the Mexican transition to democracy that offers reflections on different aspects of civic culture, the political process, electoral struggles, and critical junctures. They were written at different points in time and even though they have been corrected and adapted, they have kept the tension and fervour with which they were originally created. They provide the reader with a vision of what goes on behind those horrifying images that depict Mexico as a country plagued by narcotrafficking groups and subjected to unbridled homicidal violence. These images hide the complex political reality of the country and the accidents and shocks democracy has suffered.

Between 1995 and 1996 in Tepoztlan, Morelos, a movement was made against the construction of a large tourist development project. The case gained international attention as community members rejected their elected officials, designed their own local government and eventually won bitter victory against both the state and the internationally financed corporation developing a golf course and country club. This work focuses on how, in a time of generalized political change in Mexico, activists blended local, national and transnational courses of identity and social change to produce political practices that allowed them to win redress of their grievances, to alter local social relations and to contribute to changes within the national political system. Here, the anti-golf movement is chronicled. Important symbolic and organizational networks within Tepoztlan that took part in the conflict are explored. The role of global influences on the community's everyday life is examined, as well as the ways in which the movement contributed to the evolution of a more democratic culture. Parallels in the more recent movement in Atenco against the construction of Mexico City's new international airport are analyzed.

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic, social, cultural and political dimensions of the evolving trilateral relationship among the three countries of North America. Contributors address such topics as energy, the environment, trade, labour, the maquiladora industrial sector of Mexico, the Mexican auto industry, and Canada - U.S. cultural relations.While other publications have focused on U.S. issues, this one emphasizes Canada and Mexico, yet adds significantly to our understanding of the place of the United States in this evolving trilateral relationship.