Corporatism and Democratic Transition: State and Labor during the Salinas and Zedillo Administrations

Abstract

A long process of free-market reforms and gradual democratization seems to be dismantling Mexico's corporatist system of labor representation. A thorough analysis of the country's corporatist institutions yields theoretical reasons to believe that Mexico's practice of labor relations is indeed changing. An empirical examination of the nation's labor congress and ruling party during the two previous presidential administrations (1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) demonstrates that corporatism is being transformed at a practical level, although the process of reform has been complex and uneven at best. The continuing strength of an officialist labor sector will complicate the task of establishing a new system of labor representation, a problem that may have important implications for future democratic consolidation. lthough the electoral victory by Vicente Fox of the Partido de Acci6n

The success of a policy model: Irrigation management transfer in Mexico

“…They manoeuvred within their corporatist structures and the party, bunt alliances, and looked for the support of political patrons. In return, corporatist organisations were expected to deliver the votes and organisational support of their rank and file for the PRI, even if this required coercion or fraud 10 (Samstad, 2002). In the past, the groups controlling the CMC in Santiago had been reasonably successful in using the CMC to bargain for the positions of mayor and deputies.…”

The Poverty of Democracy: Neoliberal Reforms and Political Participation of the Poor in Mexico

“…The issue of whether free market reforms have contributed to or detracted from the process of democratization in Latin America has been controversial (see Teichman 2001, 5-10). Though politicians and analysts have worried about the negative short-term effects of radical economic reforms on the stability of Latin America's young democracies (Haggard and Kaufman 1992, 19951, many have also agreed that in the long run, free markets and democratic reforms reinforce each other by reducing corruption, increasing accountability, freeing citizens from clientelistic relationships, and laying the foundations for future economic growth (Samstad 2002;Teichman 1997Teichman , 2001Wise 2003). After all, the experiences of Western Europe and the United States suggest that stable democracies are most likely to survive in capitalist economic systems with a large degree of private ownership (Lindbloom 1977).…”

Union Affiliation, Socialization, and Political Identities: The Case of Mexico

“…Because labor was a visible and important political base for the PRI, labor unions held voting rights in the party structure and were represented in the halls of Congress through the nomination of labor leaders to electoral posts (Samstad 2002). 5 Union leaders from the Confederation of Mexican Workers (Confederación de Trabajadores Mexicanos, CTM) and other corporatist unions also held positions through the vast state bureaucracy.…”

“…7 Though some observers noted early the emergence of an antisystemic versus prosystemic voting pattern in Mexico (Domínguez and McCann 1996), an antisystemic party system cleavage emerged with force after a sweeping 1996 electoral reform (Klesner 2004). 8 Rank-and-file unionists began to demand democracy within their organizations (Samstad 2002). A rupture emerged in 1990 between unions that continued to support state economic policies and those that resisted structural adjustment and its implementation through authoritarian forms of union representation.…”

“…The literature on democratic transitions has long assumed that in the Mexican case, democratization through electoral means, together with economic liberalization, led to the weakening of the political power of Mexico's hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). As the PRI lost political power and its ability to channel economic resources to mobilize voters through its political machine, corporatism was expected to weaken, if not disappear from the Mexican political system (Samstad 2002;Grayson 2004). Yet even as union membership has declined in Mexico in recent decades, as it has across Europe and Latin America, unions still play important roles for interest representation, especially in the absence of other national-level organizations.…”