Mexico

VI

Government of Mexico

Mexico’s political model theoretically has much in common with that of the United States. As with the U.S. government, Mexico’s government is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. In Mexico, however, the executive branch dominates the other branches to such an extent that the country effectively has a political system that is controlled by its president. For most of the 20th century, only one political party, the government-controlled Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), played an influential role in politics and in the decision-making process. After it was founded in 1929, the government party monopolized most national political offices. The PRI did not lose a senate seat until 1988 or a gubernatorial race until 1989. It lost the presidency for the first time in 2000, when Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN) defeated the PRI candidate.

Given the dominance of the executive over the legislative and judicial branches, interest groups and lobbyists similar to those found in the United States have not developed in Mexico. Groups and individuals who wish to influence policy do so primarily through the executive branch, seeking contacts with agency heads and cabinet figures and, on occasion, with the president himself.

A

Executive

The president is elected by direct popular vote every six years and cannot be reelected. Presidents acquire tremendous authority because they also control the selection of candidates in their party for elective office at the national level. Therefore, most members of Mexico’s congress owe their political careers to the president. The executive also can exercise great influence simply because many Mexicans have come to expect a strong president. The president is the chief policy maker, and the executive branch has initiated 90 percent of Mexico’s legislation. Members of the president’s handpicked cabinet are the most influential members of the executive branch. Until President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León took office in December 1994, no president had selected a member of an opposition party as a cabinet official. The cabinet is divided into smaller groups, such as an economic or national security cabinet, which make policy recommendations to the president or respond to his policy initiatives.

B

Legislature

The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate make up Mexico’s bicameral legislative body. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected for three-year terms. Members of the Senate are elected every six years. Senators and deputies may be reelected, but not in consecutive terms.

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The Chamber of Deputies has the power to pass laws, impose taxes, and verify elections. The chamber has at times disregarded election vote totals and simply declared certain candidates as winners. The Senate also ratifies treaties and approves certain presidential appointments. It may also authorize the intervention of the federal government in a state by declaring that constitutional order no longer prevails.

C

Judiciary

As with the legislative branch, the judiciary has played a very minor role in Mexico’s political process. At its apex is the Supreme Court, appointed by the president with the approval of two-thirds of the Senate. Unlike its counterpart in the United States, the Supreme Court rarely invalidates or shapes laws through judicial precedent, a legal practice in which courts interpret new legislation by looking at previous court decisions and deciding how the earlier rulings apply to the new laws. This limits the ability of the Mexican Supreme Court to change or modify the country’s laws and leaves the court with little influence over important policy matters. The decisions of the Supreme Court usually follow the policies of the president and the executive branch. As a result of reforms initiated by President Zedillo that aimed to strengthen the court’s powers in 1995, the court can now review newly passed legislation within a short time period, if one-third of the members of the national legislature request such an appraisal.

D

Local Government

The organization of local government in Mexico is somewhat similar to that of local government in the United States. Mexico has 31 states and the Federal District, where the national capital of Mexico City is located. Each state is administered by an elected governor, who serves a six-year term. The head of the Federal District government, commonly called the mayor of Mexico City, is also elected. Each state is divided into municipalities. Within each municipality, a city functions as an administrative center, much as a county seat does in the United States. This city collects and distributes local revenues for the municipality. Local governments exercise much less power than they do in the United States, however, because most revenues are collected by federal tax agencies, not by state or local governments.

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