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Review
| Mexico Under Fox, by Luis Rubio and Susan Kaufman Purcell, eds.. Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004. 178 pp. $16.95, paper.
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| The editors of Mexico Under Fox have assembled six essays that examine Mexico's " political system, its economic and social policy, and its international relationships" (p. 178 ) since Vicente Fox's 2000 election. Editor Luis Rubio works through CIDAC, a private Mexico City based research institute. His coeditor Susan Kaufman Purcell works through the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas. These are New York based organizations associated with the Rockefeller family and large corporations that promote and support investment in and legislation conducive to investment in Latin America. One example would be their support for the FTAA. The book is a follow up to an earlier work, Mexico Under Zedillo. For astute readers with a general understanding of twentieth century Mexican history, the six essayists create a very understandable dissection of Mexican realpolitik and domestic economy. A brief review of PRI history at the beginning of the first essay places the current debate in historical perspective, which is a strong point of the book. Author of one of the essays, Luis Rubio interprets the sexenio, the 1968 student riots in Mexico City, the Byzantine system of patronage the which PRI had used so effectively for decades of political power and which led to entrenched corporatist institutions such as PEMEX and Telmex. The subsequent essays debate the effectiveness of Fox's political efforts in different arenas of domestic and international policy, and the authors speculate on the possibilities for the remaining years of his term. |
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I found some of the writing on Jorge Castañeda's brief tenure, U.N. politics before the Iraq war, and the post-9/11 APEC meetings at Los Cabos to be especially intriguing. In fact there is a frustration and exasperation that echoes throughout all of the authors' essays which show the inability of Mexican institutions to meet their full potential. That Mexico, a nation of 100 million people and ample natural resources, has not developed to a higher level has been a big issue for many scholars, citizens and politicians. It seems that trenchant problems of corruption, poverty and inefficiency are problems which critics of all shades agree need to be solved. But by which path? Mexico Under Fox clearly sees the path to a better Mexico through a free market approach that would disassemble much of what was built from the Revolution onward. Author Edna Jaime writes about the inability of Fox and the executive branch to create structural reforms in the outdated and inadequate electricity sector. Fox's proposals met with failure in the PRI dominated legislature. "The triumph of these interests over the executive branch was furthered by uninformed public opinion...deeply rooted ideas of sovereignty as synonymous with public ownership of firms in strategic sectors,...a divided political class that lacks consensus...[and by] a legislature...with a powerful desire for revenge". (p. 59). Teachers' and workers' unions and ejidos are also singled out as elements of society that stubbornly refuse to change. |
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Mexico Under Fox updates and synthesizes the events of Vicente Fox's first three years in office. The analyses of NAFTA, attempted reforms and diplomatic relations after September eleventh,, and the war in Iraq provide a condensed summary of on recent developments. The work is solid and serious, and I would recommend it for reading by anyone from a World Bank executive as to a WTO street protestor. As a caution I would say that the text reads like a business report: it probably would find a ready audience with Latin American economists, journalists, political scientists, MBA students interested in Latin America and modern Mexican historians. However, those seeking an analysis of changes under Fox in areas outside of politics or economics will be disappointed with what this work offers. Race, gender, class consciousness, art, music or other areas of culture are not included. I found some of the work to be dismissive or even contemptuous of many Mexican attitudes or social institutions. The human costs of the Revolution, the foreign monopolies of the Porfirio Diaz era and any idea associated with socialism are not taken into serious account, though in my opinion that would provides an inaccurate view of a Mexican perspective The 177 page work should be used in upper level undergraduate and graduate level classes, as it debates a fairly specialized subject matter. |
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| Los Angeles Harbor College |
William Diaz-Brown |
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