Regional legislatures and national lawmaking

Recent work has noted the supposedly ‘exceptional’ constitutional authority of sub-national legislatures in Mexico to introduce legislative initiatives into the national congress. Rather than a mechanism unique to Mexico, however, this debate article notes other states’ constitutions with similar provisions, drawing on data from the Comparative Constitutions Project, as well as a new dataset on lawmaking in the Russian Federation. The article calls for a new collaborative research agenda to explore the involvement of sub-national legislatures in national-level lawmaking.     

Cultural Policy and Subjective Well-Being in Mexico

This article compares the notions of subjective well-being—which has been underscored as an aim for public policy—and optimism, studied by Oliver Bennett as an implicit cultural policy. It will give an overview of the high level of subjective well-being in Mexico according to several recent surveys and consider the relation that culture and arts have with subjective well-being in different countries. This will help to frame the proposal that happiness and life satisfaction could be promoted in Mexico through arts management and cultural policy.     

Burning bridges: why don’t organised crime groups pull back from violent conflicts?

Dominant theories of organised crime assume that criminal organisations which operate in extremely violent markets do so because they consider it financially cost-effective. This article contends that by using increasingly violent actions intended to deter competitors and government forces, criminal organisations sometimes eliminate their exit option, making the penalties for withdrawal to a less violent strategy significantly worse than those of continued violence. Based on a systematic examination of footage of public statements by 18 former associates of two Mexican organised crime groups (OCGs), La Familia Michoacana (LFM) and its offshoot Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT), this article argues that through gradual increases in their use of violence, these groups reached a ‘point of no return’. After reaching this point, desisting from further violence escalation became more hazardous than pursuing a violent path, even when the latter did not align with the organisations’ business interests.     

Strategic Alliances: State-Business Relations in Mexico Under Neo-Liberalism and Crisis

Abstract – This paper examines how neoliberal policies implemented under Carlos Salinas Gortari (1988–1994) changed the nature of state-private sector relations in Mexico. The paper attempts to show how Mexico's entry into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) solidified a strategic alliance between the state and business. The drastic peso devaluation of December 1994 and the ensuing economic crisis however, threatened to shatter the very foundation of the new alliance with the private sector. This paper thus, explores how the Ernesto Zedillo regime (1994–2000) addressed the expectations of the capital class and strengthened its transparent ties with the private sector. The paper argues that given the nature of the more transparent strategic alliance formed under the Salinas administration, big business continues to be brought into the policy making process, and that in fact, Zedillo continues to intervene on the side of business.     

Nomination rules and the calculus of mobilization: Theory and evidence from Mexico

Does party organization shape candidates’ electoral mobilization efforts? I develop a novel theoretical account linking candidate selection rules to electoral mobilization. Nomination rules that require aspiring candidates to compete in electoral races, such as primary elections, create incentives for them to make considerable investments in order to win the party’s nomination. Using a decision-theoretic model, I show how these initial investments at the nomination stage shape the candidates’ mobilization expenditures in the general election. The main theoretical result establishes that primaries increase candidates’ mobilization efforts only when the general election is not expected to be competitive; when a close race is expected, candidates mobilize at the same rates regardless of how they were nominated. Analysis of an original dataset on candidate selection and electoral mobilization in Mexico provides strong support for the theory.     

What Encourages Cities to Become Sustainable? Measuring the Effectiveness of Implementing Local Adaptation Policies

This research seeks to understand which essential characteristics are necessary to drive municipal governments to adopt smart growth measures. By testing previously expected outcomes for why a local government would adopt a particular policy, we find an inherent need to create strong needs-based policies promoted by interest groups. We conducted a principal component analysis and a linear regression model to test several hypotheses. A discussion of this analysis is provided along with policy recommendations to explain why and when metropolitan areas use sustainability plans and how to encourage more to do so.     

弱关系、强关系:墨西哥移民中的网络原则

移民过程一般是通过亲属网络和社会网络来策划安排的,原来居住于同一社区的移民在目的地的扩散与集聚,基本遵循五条有关移民网络及其动力学的相关原则:第一,网络是多区域性的。第二,移民们在移入目的地找到工作的工作地点构成了移民在当地的落脚点。第三,通向新的目的地的途径常常是通过"弱关系的力量"而得到的。第四,紧密网络和松散的、弱关系的或熟人的网络均构成其成员的"社会资本"。第五,移民在工作地点和工作类型的地理扩散与集聚受紧密关系网络成员(特别是近亲属)招工的影响。     

Le congrès mexicain mis en scène. 1813–72

SUMMARY

By looking at the various sites where successive Mexican congresses met between 1813 and the 1870s (be they constituent or legislative bodies), this article examines the role of such assemblies in the national political history and public culture of Mexico. The first part of this article follows the steps of successive congresses, identifying periods of serious political conflicts – though congress enjoyed a time of relative flourishing when it occupied a chamber within the National Palace. By analysing the ceremonies, rituals and symbols adopted by congresses, the second part of the articles underlines a historical rupture after 1857, which coincides with the laicization of government, and the secularization of the public space and parliamentary rituals.     

The effects of election polls in Mexico's 2018 presidential campaign

This research note presents the results of an experimental design to study the effects of poll releases in Mexico's 2018 presidential campaign. Our research design allows us to test the conditions in which polling information can alter voters' reported preferences. The results show that the exposure to polling results makes respondents more likely to identify themselves as undecided. We interpret this change as a sign of voters' willingness to form veridical attitudes. To support this interpretation, we show that the effect is stronger among citizens with the ability and motivation to elaborate on the polling information. The findings contribute to the debate about the consequences of publishing pre-election poll results that show a clear advantage for one of the candidates.     

Elite-led development and Mexico’s independent coffee organisations in the wake of the rust epidemic

Abstract

Between 2012 and 2016 a virulent strain of coffee rust reduced Mexican yields by more than 50%, and it is still devastating production. The government has responded by replacing traditional arabica plants vulnerable to the pathogen with resistant, high-yielding varieties to recover the sector and encourage long-term adaptation to a disease that cannot be eradicated. However, this contribution will attempt to show that the intractable nature of the epidemic and the biological characteristics of resistant varieties threaten the survival of independent coffee organisations and their agroecological shade coffee systems. With little or no possibility of recovering production without the use of resistant plants, the alternative production and marketing models that these organisations have constructed over the past three decades face unprecedented challenges.