Mexico: Sovereignty, Authority, and Power

John Anderson

History History of authority

Spain -> Varied Mexican regimes -> Mexican Revolution -> PRI -> Modern Era

Regime Change over Time

Subject to Spanish rule and oversight (Spanish territory)

Monarchy (First Mexican Empire)

Republic (First Mexican Republic)

Monarchy with supreme authority from France (Second Mexican Empire)

Republic turned corrupt (Porfiriato)

Corrupt republic from the start (PRI)

Actual good republic (Present)

Legitimacy Still working on it

Slowly getting better

..

Sovereignty President has great deal of power; a heavy hand

has a history in Mexico

Largely implicit

Can I be YOUR

President?

Authority Institutions getting better; reforms under way

Institutions are generally seen as legitimate from a rule of law standpoint

Power Extragovernmental powers exist (drug cartels and

Government is fighting these

Heisenberg’s Turf

Current Political System

Liberal Democracy - Young

Transition to pluralism from corporatism

Three main parties: PRI, PAN, and PRD. PRD PRI PAN

Large government oversight of economy

History of Rule – Spanish Rule

1521 – 1821

Part of Viceroyalty of Spain

Spanish had best interests of Spain in mind over those of its terrritories

History of Rule – First Mexican Empire

General Agustin de Iturbide

Helped win control from Spain

Ended with Plan of Casa Mata

Just look at these

sideburns

History of Rule – United Mexican States

1824 Constitution established the institutions of the new regime

Really muddled

Second Constitution in 1857 more radical than first Constitution

History of Rule – Second Mexican

Empire French rule

Short-lived

My moustache

will singlehandedly win all of

Mexico

History of Rule – Porfiriato

Porfirio Diaz “won” five consecutive elections

Great years economically

History of Rule – Mexican Revolution

Political turmoil

One fifteenth of the population died

History of Rule – PRI National Revolutionary Party -> Institutional

Revolutionary Party

Mexican Miracle 1940-1980

Authoritarian at times

Starts falling apart in 1980’s, when economy goes through troubles

Election fraud

Mexican Miracle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ozAc-Vmbu0

Mexican Miracle https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?

ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_pp_kd&scale_y=log&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=country:MEX:USA&ifdim=region&hl=en&dl=en&ind=false&icfg&iconSize=0.5

History of Rule – Modern Day

Right-leaning PAN first won provincial election in 1986

Left-leaning PRD split off from PRI in 1989; more truly socialist than PRI claimed to be

Political Culture National identity has bred some level of

nationalism

Authoritarianism

Sources https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/

mx.html#Econ http://www.history.com/topics/mexico http://www.infoplease.com/country/mexico.html http://www.geographia.com/mexico/mexicohistory.htm http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/History/Mexico-history.htm http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/institutional-

revolutionary-party.html http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/

Institutional_Revolutionary_Party.html http://countrystudies.us/mexico/84.htm http://mexicanhistory.org/firstempire.htm http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/1821-1935_(Mexican_Empire) http://www.oas.org/juridico/mla/en/mex/en_mex-int-text-

const.pdfhttp://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/02/the-history-of-the-mexican-constitution/

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/authority