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In the second of our blogs this week on democracy and participation in Mexico, Jose Angel Garcia Velazquez responds to Claire Wright’s analysis of the prospects of democracy in Mexico. He argues that socio-economic reform is crucial to reduce inequalities and promote civic engagement.
Democracy and the promotion of a more participative civil society are two of the main topics in the UK and Mexican political agendas. Due to the global economic circumstances, in both countries the provision of public services is shrinking while social demands for better services is rising. Hence, the existence and development of a more politically active and engaged society is a socio-political priority. The government, however, is not solely responsible for the achievement of this goal. What is more, despite the importance given by Claire to the political-electoral reform, neither this nor other legislation in the area will fulfil hopes of greater citizen participation without economic reforms that diminish existing welfare disparities.
In her post, Claire wrote about the relevance of the recent political and electoral reforms in Mexico; important initiatives that could significantly alter electoral processes in the country. Despite their potential implications, she continued (and I agree), they have not received the same level of attention as the financial and energy ones. This is explicable and understandable. On the one hand, the country is facing what she calls its “Mexican moment”. Just to mention one example, Jim O’Neill, a University of Sheffield alumnus and the coiner of the BRICs and MINTs, has predicted Mexico will have 7% more millionaires just in 2014. On the other hand, contrary to the economic “good” news, the levels of civil participation and political engagement continue stagnating, even after the country’s democratization in 2000 and legislation promoting participatory initiatives.
One year ago, Azuela, a Mexican social activist, stated it was time for individuals and society to re-take some responsibility and avoid perpetuating the existence of an “incompetent paternalistic system” where the government seems to be responsible for everything. And she is right; an effective and participative society is an essential element in every fully functioning democracy. Nevertheless, in a country like Mexico, where citizens’ engagement in politics is low there is still much that needs to be done. No legislation will change this unless citizens’ own attitudes towards politics evolve too. Proof of this are the contradictory facts that despite 50% of Mexicans believe politics is not complicated, 75% of those interviewed do not talk about politics. More importantly, when asked about their interest in political decision making, 78% of the population would like the government to submit important decisions to popular vote but also, 74.2% are of the opinion that they elect a government to take those important decisions. Hence, it could be argued, citizens do want to become more involved in the decision making process but without having a direct responsibility over key decisions.
Claire is also correct to say that present day decisions and practices are to a large extent affected by those taken in the past. However, as President Peña Nieto has mentioned, it is “the time” for Mexico to change; a socio-political change that cannot be achieved without economic reforms that transform the scenario under which millions of Mexicans are living. The reasons are many. To begin with, the data from government polls on Political Culture (ENCUPs) demonstrate that Mexico is still immerse on –what Boggs would call– an “inevitability of elites”, where the most important decision making processes are still dominated by a small stratum of economic and political decision makers. In this vein, taking into account the educational differences within the population, politics is less complicated to those ones who studied (or are studying), and even less to those who are (or have a family member) studying at a private education institution. Accordingly, the level of interest in politics is greater among those educated and those who earn(ed) a private education respectively. While 59% of the population without any type of education is a little bit or highly interested in politics, the figure augments to 66% and 75% among those ones attending a public and private education institution correspondingly. The level of involvement in political participation is also related to the level and –arguably– quality of education.
Source: Author’s own elaboration with information from ENCUP 2005 (last available data).
Going further, only 9% of the population had spoken to a local public servant (at least between 2000 and 2001, the only time that an ENCUP asked this question), and even less (3%) to a federal public servant. Even if the type of education received is contested as an indicator of income level differences, the same polls demonstrate that those citizens belonging to the higher economic stratum are more capable to have a direct contact with both federal and local public servants and, arguably, to influence public policy.
It would be correct to argue that some of the current economic reforms are not aimed to narrow the gap between rich and poor, educated and un-educated and, as shown above, the political active and those politically disengaged. However, without some of the outcomes from these reforms, further legislation on political participation and activism (including political-electoral reform) will not have the results that Claire and others would expect. Income inequalities and uneven educational opportunities, among others, will continue representing barriers to a general civil participation. Without jointly solving these issues (notwithstanding the existence of quotas for female candidates in elections or independent candidacies) politics will continue being a vocation for the few. Furthermore, the current violence in Mexico seems to have triggered the development of a more active – although not necessarily political engaged – civil society, capable of influencing state and national governments’ discourse. Unfortunately, the current level of violence in the country has displaced, and will continue displacing, the electoral reform from the top of both the political and public agendas. Security is currently the administration’s top priority, Peña Nieto says.
Hence, notwithstanding the implementation of electoral reforms and other legislation in the area; as long as the socio-political, but also economic scenario does not change, those hopes of greater generalized citizen participation of which Claire talks about will never be fulfilled. More than a matter of ‘magic realism’, doing so it is a matter of improving civil-political will through socio-economic reform.
Bio
Jose Angel Garcia Velazquez is Associate Fellow of the Crick Centre and a Doctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield. His thesis, entitled “The social construction of public security policy: the case of Mexico” intends to contribute to the understanding and assessment of the impact of an organized civil society in the design, implementation and improvement of public security policies in Mexico’s democratic environment.
Note: this article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the Crick Centre, or the Understanding Politics blog series. For more follow our twitter discussion #understandingpolitics.
