Mexico since 1980

Abstract

This book addresses two questions that are crucial to understanding Mexico's current economic and political challenges. Why did the opening up of the economy to foreign trade and investment not result in sustained economic growth? Why has electoral democracy not produced rule of law? The answer to those questions lies in the ways in which Mexico's long history with authoritarian government shaped its judicial, taxation, and property rights institutions. These institutions, the authors argue, cannot be reformed with the stroke of a pen. Moreover, they represent powerful constraints on the ability of the Mexican government to fund welfare-enhancing reforms, on the ability of firms and households to write contracts, and on the ability of citizens to enforce their basic rights.

Institutionalizing Inequality: The Political Origins of Labor Codes in Latin America

“…With underdeveloped capital markets, they concentrated their investments in the most promising and profitable enterprises in the country-namely, export production and crucial urban services-and were eager to protect their investments in the uncertain economic context (Haber et al 2008;Haber et al 2003). designed as a kind of "selective property right" (Haber et al 2003), formulated with particular firms and industries in mind and enforced almost exclusively for them.…”

Strategic Coalitions and Agenda-Setting in Fragmented Congresses: How the PRI Sets the Legislative Agenda in Mexico

“…namely, how to ensure that competing politicians seeking rents would not use violence (defect) but rather resolve their differences peacefully (cooperate) (HABER et al, 2008). The party succeeded quite well in bringing together a heterogeneous group of politicians, as well as various key interest groups.…”

Transnational Disorders: Returned Migrants at Oaxaca's Psychiatric Hospital

“…During the 1980s and '90s, Mexico renegotiated its foreign debt and began reforms favoring deregulation, cuts in the public sector, export‐centered industrial growth, foreign investment, and free trade (Schmalzbauer :1861). Most state‐owned companies and many aspects of welfare provision have been privatized (Haber et al :18). Such policies have by many accounts exacerbated income inequality and poverty—perhaps particularly in rural areas like Oaxaca.…”