Economics and Political Change
At Project Syndicate, Jorge G. Castañeda, Mexico’s former Foreign Minister, and now Professor of Politics and Latin American Studies at New York University, argues that Mexico requires political and constitutional change because of the social and economic changes of the last decade.Following up that article, J. Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley and former Assistant US Treasury Secretary during the Clinton administration, offers an explanation for why those political changes are not likely because the economic changes in Mexico are more apparent than real.
These speculations emphasize the connections between economic and poltiical policies. It's probably essential that your students have a handle on the basics of those connections. You might have to digest these op-ed pieces or find alternatives, but they are good at least for teacher background.
Turning the Page in Mexico
"...after ten years of uninterrupted macroeconomic stability the middle class has expanded dramatically, and reasonably priced bank credit is now available to millions who had been excluded in the past. Yet, despite these robust changes, poverty remains widespread, inequality abysmal, and social resentment is on the rise...
"In the long run, the answer undoubtedly lies in the transformation of the Mexican left, and partly also of the Mexican right...
"The right-of-center Party of National Action (PAN), the grouping of current President Vicente Fox and Calderón, needs to acquire a sincere and profound social conscience...
"Much more importantly, however... the Mexican left is nowhere near transforming itself into a modern, reformist, social-democratic party...
"Without these twin transformations of its right and left, Mexico can only keep running in place, while so many others speed forward... Mexico needs short-term solutions to its travails... electoral and legal reforms aimed at avoiding a repeat of the current protests over the presidential vote. These include establishing a second-round run-off in presidential elections...
"Mexico must devise a French-style semi-presidential system whereby a designated Prime Minister is responsible for building majorities in Congress..."
Has Neo-Liberalism Failed Mexico?
"Six years ago, I was ready to conclude that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a major success...
"Since NAFTA, Mexican real GDP has grown at 3.6% per year, and exports have boomed...
"Today’s 100 million Mexicans have real incomes – at purchasing power parity – of roughly $10,000 per year...
"But the 3.6% rate of growth of GDP, coupled with a 2.5% per year rate of population and increase, means that Mexicans’ mean income is barely 15% above that of the pre-NAFTA days, and that the gap between their mean income and that of the US has widened. Because of rising inequality, the overwhelming majority of Mexicans live no better off than they did 15 years ago..."
Here's an opportunity to emphasize the connection between economics and political policy.
Many students will require a bit of a briefing on neo-liberal economic policies and the connections between efficiency and growth. You can refer them to Global Issues, which offers A Primer on Neoliberalism: "Neoliberalism is promoted as the mechanism to allow global trading that would see all nations prospering and developing fairly and equitably..." and Global Exchange which offers What is "Neo-Liberalism"? A Brief Definition: "'Neo' means we are talking about a new kind of liberalism...the capitalist crisis over the last 25 years, with its shrinking profit rates, inspired the corporate elite to revive economic liberalism. That's what makes it 'neo' or new. Now, with the rapid globalization of the capitalist economy, we are seeing neo-liberalism on a global scale..."
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:25 PM
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