Juan J. Linz** (December 26, 1926 to October 1, 2013)
One of the central causes of the stagnation of the reform project of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto is found in authoritarian remnants that remain entrenched in the malleable Mexican democracy. If my hypothesis is valid and there is political will, there would still be time to rectify it.
As we know, the concept of authoritarianism created by the late Spanish political thinker Juan Linz in order to distinguish the Franco regime of totalitarianism from those of Hitler and Stalin was perfectly adapted to the Mexican political system devised by [President Plutarco Elías] Calles in 1929. Certain hallmarks of authoritarianism remain in force in the country even after the alternation of 2000 [seventy-year PRI hegemony ended when PAN Vicente Fox took office], erroneously considered by some as the end, not as the beginning, of the democratic transition in Mexico.
The definition of authoritarianism postulated by Linz to distinguish this regime as both democratic and totalitarian has three key features:
- Limited pluralism, in contrast to the unlimited pluralism of democracy and totalitarian monism;
- Limited political participation or de-politicization;
- Unlike totalitarianism, authoritarianism is not legitimized through a dominant ideology, but through attitudes or psychological predispositions about general values such as patriotism and nationalism.
- Presence of an Executive without checks and balances or review by the Legislative and Judicial branches;
- Control of the media; and the
- Existence of an authoritarian political culture, and an appearance of
- Inequitable participation in elections that has been termed electoral authoritarianism.
- Broad pluralism;
- Political participation and balance of powers with secretive control of freedom of speech;
- Lack of transparency and electoral irregularities, despite the existence of institutions responsible for enforcing the right to information (IFAI, Federal Institute for Access to Information and Protection of Data) and free suffrage (IFE, Federal Election Institute); and the
- Present-day authoritarian political culture. (As Pope Francisco has remarked, in the context of Vatican politics, "the first reform must be that of attitudes.")
- Simultaneous democratic legitimacy of the President and the Congress;
- Likelihood of conflict between them and the absence of mechanisms for resolving them; the
- Zero-sum nature of Presidential elections;
- Formation of majorities that can lead to a high percentage of voters without representation;
- Rigidity of rules [term limits] regarding re-election; and the
- Potential for polarization. "Even when polarization has intensified to degree of violence and illegality, a stubborn President can remain in power," states Linz.
It has fallen into what Albert Hirschman (cited by Linz) considers "the desire to vouloir conclure"; that is, the desire to conclude or pass the reforms in the shortest time possible and with minimal reflection. This exaggerated sense of urgency, Linz points out, can lead to the development of ill-conceived policy initiatives; to reformist attempts too hurried to be able to analyze and discuss them adequately; to unjustified confrontations with the legal opposition, and many other undesirable effects. Exactly what is happening in Mexico. The already approved education reform, as well as the tax and energy reforms that they want to pass full-steam ahead during this legislative period, illustrate that risk. The rush to approval of the reforms can be counterproductive and dysfunctional. [The situation calls for] Prudence.
The so-called tax reform was born piecemeal and, for what is seen, will end worse. The political-electoral reform that the PAN [National Action Party] and the PRD [Party of the Democratic Revolution] have laid down as a condition for approving the other [reforms] includes such complex and controversial issues as creating the National Electoral Institute, which demand being pondered and discussed without imposed urgency. There is a danger of falling into the trap of the centralization of power, typical of the old [PRI] regime, disguised by a modernizing discourse and paradoxically promoted by the opposition. Let's not forget that the IFE and the Electoral Tribunal have also made decisions that have cast doubt on their true independence.
In the tragedy caused by Hurricanes Manuel and Ingrid, corruption took on the face of death. What surfaced is the criminal complicity of officials and businessmen who profit from poverty by allowing settlements and buildings in zones at risk. On October 20 we will know whether the law will be enforced against those responsible for these crimes, as President Enrique Peña Nieto offered to do. Combating corruption and rule of law are two major outstanding issues for our frail democracy.
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*Héctor Tajonar was born in Mexico City and studied politics at the University of Oxford. A political analyst, Tajonar writes a weekly column in the Mexican newspaper Milenio. He has been on the faculty at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
**Juan J. Linz, professor of political science at Yale University, had a German father and Spanish mother. With his mother he moved from Germany to Spain in 1932, completed high school in Madrid, graduated with honors in Law and Political Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. He earned the Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1959; his doctoral thesis, directed by Seymour Martin Lipset, was entitled, "The Social Basis of Political Parties in West Germany". In 1961 he was named a professor at Yale and began a series of empirical studies that would have a major influence on Spanish sociology. His best known works are about the theories of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, the collapse of democracies, and transitions to democratic regimes.