Reconfiguring Social Policy from the “Left” in Mexico: So Far, Not so Good?

Reynoso, Luís Huesca; Martínez, Óscar Alfonso Martínez; Leyer, Ricardo Velázquez

doi:10.1111/lamp.12198

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…By leaving intact the interests of the most privileged class, he is a kind of horizontal Robin Hood. In the early days, some analysts anticipated that “this type of redistribution from the middle to the bottom, rather than from the top to the middle and bottom, will reproduce social fragmentation and inequality” (Huesca Reynoso, Martínez-Martínez, and Velázquez Leyer, 2020: 350). Alongside crowd-pleasing measures such as an adjustment of the Presidency’s spending by –66.5 percent, there was an adjustment to the federal social security institutions of –6.8 percent.…”

Section: Capital Is Forgiven: Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Not a Mexican Pink Tide: The AMLO Administration and the Neoliberal Left

Centeno¹

2023

Latin American Perspectives

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For the first time, Mexico has a presidential administration that defines itself as “post-neoliberal,” but, although the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the most powerful the young Mexican democracy has ever seen, it is far from dismantling neoliberalism. It is a failed progressivism, and therefore it makes no sense to conceptualize it as “leftist.” Por primera vez, México tiene una administración presidencial que se define a sí misma como “posneoliberal” pero, aunque el gobierno de Andrés Manuel López Obrador es el más poderoso que la joven democracia mexicana haya visto, está lejos de desmantelar el neoliberalismo. Se trata de un progresismo fallido, y por lo tanto no tiene sentido conceptualizarlo como “izquierdista”.

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Section: Capital Is Forgiven: Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Not a Mexican Pink Tide: The AMLO Administration and the Neoliberal Left

Centeno¹

2023

Latin American Perspectives

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“…Second, although severe levels of food insecurity show the adverse conditions experienced by many people, more studies need to be conducted to determine if descriptions related to food insecurity effectively capture the most adverse episodes of hunger. Otherwise, an additional level of food insecurity to account for this type of experiences must be generated, particularly for countries like Mexico where the endemic conditions of poverty, inequality, as well as the minimum impact of social policies [ 48 , 2 ] produce constant episodes of hunger. Third, the instruments utilized to measure food insecurity must accurately illustrate whether people can obtain and consume the type of foods needed to maintain a varied diet.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food insecurity and levels of marginalization: food accessibility, consumption and concern in Mexico

Martínez-Martínez,

Gil-Vasquez,

Romero-González

2023

Int J Equity Health

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Background Food insecurity continues to be a problem throughout the world. When estimating food insecurity, few studies analyze the contexts where the phenomenon takes place. By bearing in mind levels of marginalization in four states of Mexico, this paper answers two questions: (I) What problems are experienced with access to food, and how these difficulties affect the amount of food consumed in households? and (II) How do households experience the concern of running out of food? Methods Our qualitative study draws data from urban and semi-urban areas of four Mexican states: Mexico City, Tamaulipas, the State of Mexico, and Oaxaca. Each state presents different levels of well-being. The study’s participants are selected using the snowball method. Eligibility criteria are based on demographic characteristics such as education, age, and gender. A thematic analytical approach is conducted to analyze collected data from a total of 212 semi-structured interviews. Results The study’s findings indicate that concern of food scarcity is a generalized feeling among participants across different levels of marginalization. Individuals with stable jobs living in contexts of low levels of marginalization experience worriedness when their budgets tightened before the end of the payday, a bi-weekly payment format, named the quincena in México. This psychological state of mind changes through the payday cycle, a period when the direct relationship between food accessibility and consumption weakens. In response, individuals develop strategies to cope with the uncertainty of experiencing food insecurity, such as rationing food portions and/or hoarding food supplies. Even when food accessibility exists, interviewees identify insufficient income as the primary issue in contexts of low and very low levels of marginalization. Conclusions Conclusive remarks drawn from our analysis underline the importance of the context of marginalization in influencing households’ experiences with food insecurity. At the quincena’s end, food insecurity increases, even in contexts of very low marginalization. Our study calls for rethinking the scales employed to measure food insecurity, specifically the questions related to fear of food scarcity. Coping strategies are implemented by surveyed individuals to resolve issues and repercussions that emerge from experiencing food insecurity differ by context of marginalization.

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“…In the specific case of Mexico, a new left-wing government took office in December 2018, but in an unexpected path, rather than advancing towards the construction of an authentic universal welfare system that could promote equality and social solidarity, the government seems to have chosen a residual path that reinforces duality, draconian spending cuts in all areas – allegedly as a measure to combat corruption – and improvised formulation and implementation processes that open the door to clientelistic practices. These initiatives do not mirror a progressive model, which should emphasise the construction of solid institutions for a more just and equal (re)distribution of public goods and services (Huesca Reynoso and Velázquez Leyer, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Has Social Policy Expansion in Latin America Reduced Welfare Decommodification and Defamilialisation? Evidence from an Overview of the Mexican Welfare Regime

Leyer

2020

Social Policy and Society

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Mexican social policy has been transformed in recent years with the introduction and expansion of social assistance programmes, causing a diversion from the trajectory based on social insurance since the first decades of the twentieth century. This article aims to understand the outcomes of that transformation, by applying welfare regime theory to establish how social policy reforms have affected the distribution of welfare responsibilities among the state, markets and families. The research identifies (de)commodification and (de)familialisation outcomes of policy changes in pensions, healthcare, unemployment and family support. Results suggest that the expansion has not produced significant reductions in decommodification or defamilialisation because of: a) the explicit or implicit role assigned to markets in policy design and implementation, and b) the reliance of the process of economic liberalisation on the welfare role performed by families. The case of Mexico may illustrate the current welfare challenges faced by societies across Latin America.

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Reconfiguring Social Policy from the “Left” in Mexico: So Far, Not so Good?

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

Not a Mexican Pink Tide: The AMLO Administration and the Neoliberal Left

Not a Mexican Pink Tide: The AMLO Administration and the Neoliberal Left

Food insecurity and levels of marginalization: food accessibility, consumption and concern in Mexico

Has Social Policy Expansion in Latin America Reduced Welfare Decommodification and Defamilialisation? Evidence from an Overview of the Mexican Welfare Regime

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