El autor nos presenta una visión económica de corte sólidamente ortodoxo con la cual uno puede no estar siempre de acuerdo. Sin embargo, en esta compilación destacan dos aspectos que justifican su lectura aun para aquellos que busquen ideas y soluciones más heterodoxas. Por una parte, el autor ofrece un recuento sumamente informado, coherente y perceptivo de un periodo crucial de la historia económica reciente de México, que vale la pena para todos recordar, sin importar creencias o convicciones personales. Por otra parte, el tema general de los escritos, el alcance e instrumentación del papel del Estado en el desarrollo económico de México, se ha vuelto más relevante que nunca en este momento en que el Estado mexicano atraviesa nuevamente una crisis de identidad al prepararse para un nuevo sexenio.

"Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies."

Based on a decade of field research, this work is the first book-length, scholarly examination in English of the role of Catholicism in Mexican society since the 1970s through 1995, and the increasing political activism of the Catholic church and clergy. It is also the first analysis of church-state relations in Latin America that incorporates detailed interviews of numerous bishops and clergy and leading politicians about how they see each other and how religion influences their values. It is also the first analysis of the Mexican Catholic Church which uses national survey research to examine Mexican attitudes toward religion, Christianity, and Catholicism, and provides the first inside look at the decision-making process of bishops at the diocesan level.

The Metamorphosis of Leadership in a Democratic Mexico is a broad analysis of Mexico's changing leadership over the past eight decades, stretching from its pre-democratic era (1935-1988), to its democratic transition (1988-2000) to its democratic period (2000-the present). In it, Roderic Camp, one of the most distinguished scholars of Mexican politics, seeks to answer two questions: 1) how has Mexican political leadership evolved since the 1930s and in what ways, beyond ideology, has the shift from a semi-authoritarian, one-party system to a democratic, electoral system altered the country's leadership? and 2) which aspects of Mexican leadership have been most affected by this shift in political models and when and why did the changes in leadership occur? Rather than viewing Mexico's current government as a true democracy, Camp sees it as undergoing a process of consolidation, under which the competitive electoral process has resulted in a system of governing institutions supported by the majority of citizens and significant strides toward plurality. Accordingly, he looks at the relationship between the decentralization of political power and the changing characteristics, experiences and paths to power of national leaders. The book, which represents four decades of Camp's work, is based upon a detailed study of 3000 politicians from the 1930s through the present, incorporating regional media accounts and Camp's own interviews with Mexican presidents, cabinet members, assistant secretaries, senators, governors, and party presidents.

Based on extensive fieldwork and a wide variety of US and Mexican academic, government and journalistic sources, this book analyzes the critical institutions and policy issues that will determine whether and how the Mexican government can modernize the economy and retain political legitimacy.