Democratic Transition in Mexico: Case of City Juárez

Abstract

The electronic and bibliographic sources, as well as some interviews and focus groups conducted in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, all present interpretations by different actors on the so-called democratic transition in Mexico. The model, proposed Carothers (2002) to explain the transition from a dictatorship to democracy, as stage universally.This article shows which of the five assumptions of the model are present in the experience of the Mexican transition and those that were not consider applicable. He also argues that the model shows features of a teleological perspective, by omitting the particularities of each country, eliminating any reference to diversity and difference, becoming an ideological approach linked to the process of economic globalization. It criticizes the absence of discussion of social and economic objectives that should be priority in a conception of substantive democracy, rather than limiting the horizon of the transition to a liberal and normative conception, that assumes two basic formulas: (1) Democracy is equal to elections; and (2) a citizen is a vote. Contrasting documents on electoral disenchantment in Ciudad Juárez and the actions that various political actors have done, we can illustrate what can be termed substantive citizenship.