Aspectos De Sistema Politico

ASPECTS OF THE MEXICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM



Richard R. Fagen
Stanford University

William S. Tuohy
University of California (Davis)


his paper is not a general and exhaustive model of Mexican pol­ itics. lt is a series of connected
propositions about those aspectsof the Mexican political system that are most relevant to an understanding of politics in
jalapa (capital of the state of Veracruz). For example, although the political economy of Mexico is deeply intertwined
with that of the United States in ways that influence decision-making at the national leve!, these factors are of limited importance in the politics ofJalapa. Thus, they are not discussed below.
Also, there will not be any section specifically devoted to mechanisms of political control. lt has become popular in certain circles to vifw the Mexican political system as a set of institutions and practices for the control of the population in general and oppositionist groups in particular. When the standard practices ofcontrol break down-as in the summer of 1968-violent repression may be used. This emphasis on control and repression is a needed corrective to various celebrations of "democratic" Mexico; but what is impressive about the politics of Jalapa is the manner in which both the behavior or ordinary citizens and the behavior of elites are shaped so as to obviate theformal and public exercise of political controls. In the city one does not sense, nor do the data to be presented suggest, that repressive controls are much used, threatened, or feared. Thus we
concentrate on informal and structural controls, on the manner in which norms, institutions, and custom coalesce to support a form of politics in which conflict is muted,opposition is absorbed, and political failure is in part defined as the necessity of actually using the impressive State apparatus of public control and repression (Anderson and Cockroft, I 966; Brandenburg, 1964; Cline, 1963; Glade and Anderson, 1963; González Casanova, 1970; Padgett, 1966; Scott, 1964, I965; Vemon, I963; Wilkie,
1967. See also Hansen,1971; johnson,
1971).
Final1y, it should be noted that the model is not independent of the data gathered in jalapa. In deciding what roles to emphasize, what structures and pro­ cesses are more rather than less impor­ tant, and how the system fits together, we have been deeply influenced by what we found there. This does not mean that the data, analyses,inferences, and conclu­ sions of the study are all implied in the model. On the contrary, mueh of what is sketched on the following pages will become meaningful only when supported by data and analyzed in terms of the political realities of Jalapa.

Centralization and Hierarchy
In 1965 Carlos Madraza, as president of the National Executive Committee of PRI(Partido Revolucionario Institu-
MEXICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

cional/Revolutionary lnstitutional Party), experimented with holding primaries within the party. There was sorne specula­ tion at the time that this partial democra­ tization of the party's operation was being tried without the wholehearted approval of President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. As ahighly placed Mexican friend put it, however, "Sr. Madrazo has a political life expectancy of approximately
45 seconds if he should really displease the President. lt is that long only because our telephone service is bad." Indeed, when the democratization experiments failed, Madrazo was removed from his post, assumed a marginally oppositionist role in...