Poverty of Democracy: The Institutional Roots of Political Participation in Mexico

7. Political Equality and Democracy in Mexico

195 Whether in Chile’s exclusionary military regime or Mexico’s one-party electoral dictatorship, growing citizen political activism was a crucial factor in weakening authoritarian governments and ushering in democratic transitions throughout the 1980s and 1990s across Latin America. Both the rich and poor, college graduates and the uneducated, joined in peaceful and violent protests, organized marches and strikes, voted in referenda, joined grassroots organizations, and participated in countless other ways while struggling for democracy. Sometimes, as in the case of Chile, it was the poor who, despite precarious living situations and real threats to their lives, were the catalysts for their country’s democratic transition (Garretón 1989, Oxhorn 1995, and Roberts 1999). Today, the consolidation of democratic governments in the region means that citizen political participation is more important than ever for selecting political leaders, deciding on public policies, and ensuring governmental accountability, legitimacy, and responsiveness. Have the poor been able to maintain their activism under democratic political regimes? Across Latin America the answer seems clear: no. Expectations that democratic governments would institutionalize the political participation of the popular groups active during the transition and give voice     ChaPTER 7     Political equality anD Democracy in mexico holzner text-3.indd 195 8/6/10 10:52 AM 196  Political Equality and Democracy in Mexico to the demands and preferences of the region’s poor have not been realized. Rather, popular movements have splintered and floundered in most countries , political participation is increasingly atomized and limited to voting in elections, and participatory inequalities appear to be growing (Dietz 1998, Kurtz 2004, Levine 2006, Levine and Romero 2004, Oxhorn 1994, Oxhorn and Ducatenzeiler 1998b, Posner 2008, Roberts 1999, and Weyland 1996). In many Latin American countries today the urban and rural poor participate much less often and in fewer political activities than the more affluent. To the extent that the region’s severe socioeconomic inequalities—which are among the worst in the world—are reflected in patterns of political participation , the quality and perhaps the long-term stability of democratic governments will be in jeopardy. During the past two decades Mexico has undergone a dramatic transformation from a one-party authoritarian regime to a multiparty competitive democracy. Economically it has undergone just as radical a transformation from a state-led development model to a free-market model emphasizing free trade, reduced government spending, and diminished state regulation over the economy. During this same period overall levels of political engagement have declined, with the sharpest drops occurring among low-income Mexicans. This has produced a stratified pattern of political participation that mirrors more and more Mexico’s severe socioeconomic inequalities. Although it is tempting to conclude that this stratified pattern in Mexico (and Latin America) is merely mirroring patterns in such advanced democracies as the United States, or are signs of a “normalization” of democratic politics, these conclusions are misleading. There is a causal relationship between these big structural reforms and the political behavior of ordinary citizens. While much of the political participation research has emphasized the importance of individual resources such as income, skills, and education, as well as individual political attitudes, I have used a variety of methodological strategies and data to show that in Mexico, these tell only part of the story. To fully understand who participates, when they do so, and in what kind of activities, we need to pay attention to the political opportunities and constraints people face locally and nationally. The specific institutions that matter for political activity vary from case to case, but in Mexico the scope and design of antipoverty programs, the features of the party system, the prevalence of fraud and clientelist practices, and the nature of party competition can enhance or dampen the political participation of citizens above and beyond what might be expected from their income and education levels alone. Moreover, political institutions do not have uniform effects across income holzner text-3.indd 196 8/6/10 10:52 AM Political Equality and Democracy in Mexico  197 groups: the same institutional context can send very different signals to the rich and the poor about how open the political system is to political pressure from below. Sometimes public policies and political party competition open up opportunities for participation among the poor that encourage greater interest and engagement with politics and equalize levels of activism. At other times they create obstacles to participation that magnify the demobilizing effect of...