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Content: Mexico - Government
Government
Mexico Table of Contents
FOR MORE THAN THREE GENERATIONS, Mexicans have attributed the origins
        of their political system to the Revolution of 1910-20. They cite the
        constitution of 1917, a sweeping document that capped nearly a decade of
        civil war among rival regional militias, as the foundation of their
        modern political institutions and practices. Mexico's governing
        institutions and political culture also bear the imprint of three
        centuries of Spanish colonial rule. Mexicans' adherence to a highly
        codified civil law tradition, their acceptance of heavy state
        involvement in business and civic affairs, and the deference accorded
        the executive over other branches of government can be traced to the
        administrative and legal practices of the colonial period. Finally, the
        traumatic experiences of the nineteenth century, including foreign
        military occupations and the loss of half of the national territory to
        the United States, as well as the disillusion sown by a series of
        unconstitutional regimes, continue to have a profound impact on
        contemporary political culture. During the 1920s, President Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-28)
        reorganized Mexican politics along corporatist (see Glossary) lines as a
        way to contain latent social conflicts. Calles expanded the government
        bureaucracy to enable it to mediate among rival constituencies and to
        dispense state funds to organizations supportive of the
        "official" party. Calles also created new umbrella
        organizations that lumped together disparate groups according to broad
        functional categories. The newly created interest groups depended
        heavily on the state for their financing and were required to maintain
        strong ties to the ruling party. By grafting corporatist institutions
        onto Mexico's historically fractious political system at a time when
        ideologies of the extreme left and right were gaining support throughout
        the world, Mexico's leaders avoided a return to the widespread violence
        that had engulfed their country during the 1910s and early 1920s.