This collection of 18 well-crafted essays captures many of the essential features of Mexico's ambiguous political system, a democracy on paper characterised by one-party rule, political violence and social conservativism. Such a hybrid regime has been described by political scientists Gullermo O'Donnell and Phillippe Schmitter as a ‘dictablanda’.
Following an erudite introduction, the editors organise the essays into three broad categories: high and low politics, work and resource regulation, and culture and ideology. The essay by Alan Knight argues that Mexico's retreat from social reform began in 1938 when President Lázaro Cárdenas, responding to stiff resistance from the Catholic Church and social conservatives, halted socialist education. The timing is complicated, however, because that same year Cárdenas nationalised foreign-owned petroleum companies and created PEMEX. Moreover, according to Roberto Blancarte, Cárdenas still believed that Mexican society would become secularised through industrialisation and modernisation. This proved to be a miscalculation, however, as most Mexicans did not benefit from industrialisation and the Church's political position improved following its renewed commitment to social reform with Vatican II. Thomas Roth, in one of the strongest essays, discusses the revolutionary state's more harmonious political relationship with the army. He shows how the state and the army collaborated to achieve shared political goals, despite formal separation of civilian and military authority. Roth explains, for example, that the state used the army to police citizens and to suppress political opponents, and that some generals acquired significant political influence and enriched themselves through illegal activities.
Two related essays discuss relations between regional bosses (caciques) and the official state party (the PRM/PRI) that emerged in the post-revolutionary political settlement. Caciques affiliated with the PRI controlled local elections through fraud and violence, and used patronage to build and sustain political support. As the political and economic environment became more complex in the 1950s, however, caciques gave way to political families (camarillas), whose persistence argues against the theory of the all-powerful state directed from Mexico City. Will G. Pansters then presents a case study of the cacique Gonzalo N. Santos, describing him as the ‘prototypical regional cacique of post-revolutionary Mexico’ (p. 127). Santos controlled politics in San Luis Potosí from the 1940s to 1958 following the suppression of the Cedillo rebellion against Cárdenas. Santos combined a rustic political style characteristic of his native Huasteca with an acute understanding of PRI party politics in Mexico City. He established his control by stealing elections, increasing the governor's authority and crushing dissenters.
The electoral process in Guerrero and Veracruz is then discussed by Paul Gillingham, who shows that an element of democracy characterised official party politics. Competition existed to get onto the ballot and the winners had to demonstrate that they enjoyed significant popular support. Gillingham also notes that the PRI sometimes allowed opposition candidates who had won elections to take office, rather than provoke riots that could mushroom into major political scandals.
The section on work and resource regulation begins with Michael Snodgrass's examination of union patronage systems in the steel and mining industries in the north and in the sugar industry in Jalisco. In the north, union bosses (‘charros’) distributed jobs to workers’ family members and sold goods in union stores at reduced prices, while PRI officials in Jalisco allocated coveted bracero permits to sugar mill workers. These privileges consolidated the bond between state, party and unions in important industries. Gladys McCormick then discusses the career of Antonio Jaramillo, a union activist in the sugar cooperative at Zacatepec, Morelos, who worked within the system, despite hostile actions by management and the government. His career is representative of post-revolutionary union leaders and can be contrasted with the actions of his brother Rubén, who organised a general strike, ran for governor and twice rebelled against the state. Rubén was assassinated along with most of his family in 1962, while Antonio retained employment and received a position for his son. Maria Teresa Fernández Aceves next describes the exceptional political career of Guadalupe Urzúa Flores, who entered politics as a Cardenista activist and became a Priísta congresswoman in Jalisco in 1955, three years after women received the vote. Fernández describes how Urzúa Flores navigated her way within a macho political culture, relying on intelligence, good looks and charm, to win healthcare, education and land for her constituents, making her more of an ‘advocate’ than a cacica.
Remaining essays in this section examine how tax policy and government corruption benefited corporations and the wealthy. Christopher R. Boyer shows that forest service officers enforced logging bans in areas controlled by peasant communities, but allowed timber companies to log over protected forests in return for bribes. In this case, government corruption enabled degradation of the environment and enriched corporations. Benjamin T. Smith then explains how Mexico's tax system has favoured business at the expense of the general public. Although Mexico had the lowest tax burden in Latin America, pervasive tax evasion by the wealthy created budgetary shortfalls that reduced funding for social services and education. Regressive taxation and corporate tax holidays, moreover, served to widen the gap between the rich and the poor.
The section on culture and ideology opens with Guillermo de la Peña's essay on federal policy toward the indigenous. Cárdenas’ wanted to ‘Mexicanise the Indians’ through educational and agrarian reforms, but his successors retreated from these reforms and ignored abuses of Indians by local officials and merchants. On the positive side, Cárdenas's successors supported academic investigations of indigenous cultures and collaborated with foreign scholars.
Two subsequent essays discuss the relationship between the state and the media. Andrew Paxman argues that the federal government valued the cinema not as cultural production but because newsreels served as propaganda tools for its policies, and because film helped to entertain the masses. Entertainment industries also enriched foreign investors and presidents. For example, US businessman William Jenkins owned 25 of the 75 cinemas in Mexico City, and made generous donations to Manuel Ávila Camacho. When television became more profitable than cinema, Miguel Alemán also acquired a covert stake in a major network. All media expanded in the 1950s and made fortunes for politically connected entrepreneurs. Pablo Piccato next discusses the relationship between the state, the media and murder. Despite PRI control over the industrial press, the party could not prevent reporting of homicides and the perception that murders were political acts. Politicians frequently hired gunmen who killed on command, and politically suspicious murders were not properly investigated. Such cases triggered public discourse regarding the linkage between politicians, police and murder.
Two final essays examine student activism and popular protest. Tanalís Padilla discusses rural normal schools established by Plutarco Calles in the 1920s, which provided instruction in agriculture, culture and politics designed to uplift peasants. The government began to close normales in the 1940s, but those that remained protested against government corruption and social conservatism. In 1965, normalistas assaulted the army barracks at Madera, Chihuahua, and in the 1960s they threatened armed insurgency in Guerrero. Jaime M. Pensado then turns our attention to Mexico City and protests at the Politécnico in 1956, which launched the student movement of the 1960s. Strikers demanded the director's removal and a voice in governance, and they drew support from 100,000 students on neighbouring campuses. Adolfo Ruiz Cortines agreed to invest more resources in the Politécnico and to give students an administrative role. The director, fearing for his life, also resigned. Nevertheless, the strike continued until the army occupied the campus, establishing a pattern of protest and repression.
By way of a conclusion, Jeffrey W. Rubin argues that the federal government attempted to control the popular forces unleashed by the Revolution but could not unilaterally impose authoritarian control. Instead, there evolved a hegemonic process between the centre and the periphery, with regions becoming integrated into the political system while preserving political space through resistance and negotiation.
Scholars can debate if Mexico's political system was authoritarian or hegemonic, but these essays provide little evidence of a democracy. Fraudulent elections, political violence, corruption and patronage characterised the period. The retreat from the Cárdenista reforms, politically imperfect attempts to benefit the masses, resulted in policies that enriched corporations, politicians and their associates.
