VI.

Government

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 or 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 500-member Chamber of Deputies are elected for three-year terms, 300 of them from single-member districts, just as in the United States House of Representatives, and 200 on the basis of a complex formula related to the percentage of votes cast for each party’s candidates. The 128-member Senate is elected every six years. Since the year 2000, all members of the Senate have been on the same election cycle. Sixty-four members represent geographic areas (two are elected from each state and the Federal District) and 64 are elected on the basis of the number of votes cast for each party. Senators and deputies may be reelected, but not in consecutive terms.

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. Prior to 1997 the head of the Federal District was a member of the federal cabinet and was appointed by the president. 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.

E.

Political Parties

Although Mexico long had a political system dominated by one party, the PRI, opposition parties existed for many decades. In 2000 one of these opposition parties, the National Action Party (PAN), won the presidency, defeating the PRI, which also lost control of the congress.

The PAN was founded in 1939 by dissident leaders from the PRI. It occupies the center right of the political spectrum in Mexico, favoring rapid political reform and integrity in government. The party also calls for privatizing state-owned industries and resources and decreasing government spending on social services such as health care. In the 2000 election the party was led by Vicente Fox.

Another major opposition party is the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). The PRD was founded by dissident PRI and left-of-center party leaders in 1989. It dominates the center left. The PRD also favors rapid political reform, but cooperates less with the PRI than does the PAN. Members of the PRD are often critical of some of the consequences associated with economic policies or trade pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Some of these consequences include increased foreign control of Mexico’s economy after state-owned industries and resources are sold to foreign investors, and the failure of many Mexican businesses since NAFTA was first enacted in 1994.

In the 1980s, the PRI lost much of its popularity due to economic policies that had led to a steep decline in the standard of living of ordinary Mexicans. In 1987 a number of dissident PRI members were expelled from the party. Their leader, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, ran for president in the 1988 elections at the head of a coalition of leftist parties. Cárdenas and many international election observers claimed that he won, but the election was marked by widespread fraud on behalf of the PRI candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Salinas was finally declared the winner, but opposition parties gained 240 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, ending the PRI’s 60-year reign of unchallengeable one-party rule. Due to the strong showing by Cárdenas, as well as subsequent electoral reforms, the size and strength of opposition political parties has grown considerably in recent years.

F.

Social Services

Mexico was the first nation in the world to include the term social security in its constitution (1917), but the program was not implemented until 1943. Mexico’s social security system—which includes subsidized medical and hospital care that is available to all citizens—is much more comprehensive than that found in the United States. However, these medical services are often unavailable in smaller, isolated communities, and many Mexicans from rural locations or predominantly indigenous communities have limited access to health care. In addition, public facilities are generally inferior to private ones, but private care is too expensive for most Mexican households.

The average life expectancy for men and women in Mexico is 73 and 79 years, respectively. This is significantly lower than the average life expectancy in the United States (75 years for men and 81 years for women). The infant mortality rate in Mexico in 2007 was 20 per 1,000 live births. This compares to 6 per 1,000 in the United States. Intestinal diseases are endemic in many parts of Mexico and are the most common cause of death among children.

G.

Defense

The Mexican armed forces is organized into three major branches: the army, which had 144,000 troops in 2004; the navy, with 37,000 members; and the air force, with 11,770. Mexico’s military, measured in terms of the percentage of economic resources allocated per capita, is one of the smallest in the world. Military service, which typically involves some informal training and practice, is compulsory for males reaching age 18 but is widely ignored in practice. The military is subordinate to civil authority; however, the military has the potential to become involved in Mexican politics because it performs many internal police tasks. It has been responsible for pursuing the Zapatista rebels and for combating drug traffickers operating in Mexico.

H.

International Organizations

Mexico belongs to the United Nations (UN) and participates in many of its agencies, such as the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Mexico is also a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), the most important regional diplomatic group; the Rio Group, a regional diplomatic organization that grew out of efforts by Latin American leaders to mediate conflicts in Central America during the 1980s; and the International Labor Organization (ILO).