Download - Mexico: Sovereignty, Authority, and Power
Mexico: Sovereignty, Authority, and Power
John Anderson
History History of authority
Spain -> Varied Mexican regimes -> Mexican Revolution -> PRI -> Modern Era
Regime Change over Time
Subject to Spanish rule and oversight (Spanish territory)
Monarchy (First Mexican Empire)
Republic (First Mexican Republic)
Monarchy with supreme authority from France (Second Mexican Empire)
Republic turned corrupt (Porfiriato)
Corrupt republic from the start (PRI)
Actual good republic (Present)
Legitimacy Still working on it
Slowly getting better
..
Sovereignty President has great deal of power; a heavy hand
has a history in Mexico
Largely implicit
Can I be YOUR
President?
Authority Institutions getting better; reforms under way
Institutions are generally seen as legitimate from a rule of law standpoint
Power Extragovernmental powers exist (drug cartels and
Government is fighting these
Heisenberg’s Turf
Current Political System
Liberal Democracy - Young
Transition to pluralism from corporatism
Three main parties: PRI, PAN, and PRD. PRD PRI PAN
Large government oversight of economy
History of Rule – Spanish Rule
1521 – 1821
Part of Viceroyalty of Spain
Spanish had best interests of Spain in mind over those of its terrritories
History of Rule – First Mexican Empire
General Agustin de Iturbide
Helped win control from Spain
Ended with Plan of Casa Mata
Just look at these
sideburns
History of Rule – United Mexican States
1824 Constitution established the institutions of the new regime
Really muddled
Second Constitution in 1857 more radical than first Constitution
History of Rule – Second Mexican
Empire French rule
Short-lived
My moustache
will singlehandedly win all of
Mexico
History of Rule – Porfiriato
Porfirio Diaz “won” five consecutive elections
Great years economically
History of Rule – Mexican Revolution
Political turmoil
One fifteenth of the population died
History of Rule – PRI National Revolutionary Party -> Institutional
Revolutionary Party
Mexican Miracle 1940-1980
Authoritarian at times
Starts falling apart in 1980’s, when economy goes through troubles
Election fraud
Mexican Miracle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ozAc-Vmbu0
Mexican Miracle https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?
ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_pp_kd&scale_y=log&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=country:MEX:USA&ifdim=region&hl=en&dl=en&ind=false&icfg&iconSize=0.5
History of Rule – Modern Day
Right-leaning PAN first won provincial election in 1986
Left-leaning PRD split off from PRI in 1989; more truly socialist than PRI claimed to be
Political Culture National identity has bred some level of
nationalism
Authoritarianism
Sources https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/
mx.html#Econ http://www.history.com/topics/mexico http://www.infoplease.com/country/mexico.html http://www.geographia.com/mexico/mexicohistory.htm http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/History/Mexico-history.htm http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/institutional-
revolutionary-party.html http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/
Institutional_Revolutionary_Party.html http://countrystudies.us/mexico/84.htm http://mexicanhistory.org/firstempire.htm http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/1821-1935_(Mexican_Empire) http://www.oas.org/juridico/mla/en/mex/en_mex-int-text-
const.pdfhttp://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/02/the-history-of-the-mexican-constitution/
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/authority