This in-depth study of local government in Mexico raises issues which go far beyond the territory it covers. It will be of absorbing interest to all students of local democracy and participatory methods, not only in Latin America, but in Western and Eastern Europe, the USA, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere, where initiatives and experimentation are driven by socio-economic change. Everywhere citizen participation has become an important part of the democratisation debate, and this is certainly the situation in contemporary Mexico. This book presents a revealing insight of the wide range of participatory mechanisms, including plebiscites, referenda and neighbourhood committees, which have been introduced by different political parties at the local level in Mexico. After presenting the overall picture, the author examines the implementation of the participatory agenda in three localities:

An analysis of participatory democracy as it operates in practice in different regions of contemporary Mexico.

During the 1980s the Mexican regime faced a series of economic, social, and political disasters that led many to question its survival. Yet by 1992 the economy was again growing, with inflation under control and the confidence of international investors restored. Mexico was now touted as an example for regimes in Eastern Europe to emulate. How did Carlos Salinas and his team of technocrats manage to gain political power sufficient to impose their economic model? How did they sustain their revolution from above despite the hardships these changes brought for many Mexicans? How did they stage their remarkable political comeback and create their “democracy within reason”? Why did Salinas succeed in keeping control of his revolution while Mikhail Gorbachev failed to do so in his similar effort at radical reform? Miguel Centeno addresses these questions by analyzing three critical developments in the Mexican state: the centralization of power within the bureaucracy; the rise of a new generation of technocrats and their use of a complex system of political networks; and the dominance of a neoliberal ideology and technocratic vision that guided policy decisions and limited democratic participation. In his conclusion the author proposes some alternative scenarios for Mexico’s future, including the role of NAFTA, and suggests lessons for the study of regimes undertaking similar transitions. Of obvious interest to students of contemporary Mexico and Latin America, the book will also be very useful for those analyzing the transition to the market in other countries, the role of knowledge in public policy, and the nature of the modern state in general.

Placing this book in the context of NAFTA and Mexican movements for social change, journalist and historian Dan La Botz unveils the forces behind Marcos and the Zapatista Rebellion of January 1994 and re-examines the circumstances surrounding the assasination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. Contains a detailed analysis of how Ernesto Zedillo and the PRI won the August 21, 1994 elections and includes an examination of widespread electoral fraud. La Botz provides a first-hand account of the founding of National Democratic Converntion (CND), the new force for democracy and social justice in Mexico led by Rosario Ibarra. Ibarra is Mexico's leading human rights activist and first woman presidential candidate.

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.

Democracy in Mexico offers an important contribution to one of the more complex and multifaceted political processes of recent decades in Latin America: Mexico's democratization at the national and subnational levels. Topics include the quality of democracy, political participation, and insecurity. The book is based on two surveys carried out throughout Mexico in 2009 and 2011. The result of this collaboration is one of the few existing studies on democratic processes in the Mexican states.

An insider perspective on contemporary Mexico, this text examines the meaning of democracy in the lives of working-class residents in Mexico City in 2002. It provides a detailed, bottom-up exploration of what men and women think about national and neighbourhood democracy.