Reforma: Luis F. Aguilar*
Translated by Sally Seward
We have changed political regimes, but not political systems. We have our new political institutions, more democratic, but the political practices are the same as always. The same relationships and power games are played between the actors and there are the same expectations of utility in political deals, even if we have a legislature that is more independent in its deliberation and citizens more resolved to raising their voices against decisions and laws that hurt them.
The fact that things continue to be the same, even with the whole democratic transition, shows that the reforms that are being encouraged reach only the edge of politics and not its heart. They occur in the institutions but not in practice. In other words, the institutional reforms (dealing with the budget or education in this case) do not reform the practices of the involved citizens, do not lead to new behavior, and tend to collapse or become distorted because sooner than later the government, politicians and citizens will recreate their same game, their same deal as always.
Facing the spectacle of confrontations, pressure and deals that the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers [CNTE], the parties, the business owners, the legislators and the civil servants have been responsible for in these past few weeks, in order to get the reforms moving along as much as they could, we should have realized that the problems that are keeping the nation from changing, from jumping to a new level of economic prosperity and social security, are found in the relationships between the public powers and the citizens, which the democratic regime of these years has modified here and there, but without making significant changes. The same practices remain in political relationships.
As much before as after democracy, the governments continue to expect the same behavior from their citizens, and the citizens expect the same behavior from their leaders. Even more, the voting citizens, precisely because they know that they have elected those who govern them, expect from them a greater number and level of the favors that they have always received: subsidies, eases, exemptions, juicy collective contracts, and miscellaneous lucrative funds. Likewise, the elected leaders, precisely because they know that they have been elected legally and that they enjoy greater political legitimacy, expect to receive from their citizens greater agreement with their decisions, policies and reforms. In short, the usual political relationship is still alive, that of obedience to a power that pays well.
Because we have not abandoned the same system of political relations, it is logical that the politicians, including the President, will continue to believe that they are the lords of an ignorant, precarious, opportunist and incapable society, a reason that they--from high up, without dialogue or basic agreements with the citizens of the economic and civil society--believe themselves to know what the country needs and believe themselves capable of determining by themselves the nation's project, the public agenda, and the reforms. The Pact for Mexico--not to forget the agreement it achieved between different forces (something to value)--expresses this idea of the superiority of the political class, of its imaginary self-esteem and autonomy, to such a point that they determined their 95 national agreements in secret, among themselves, and they passed us their political menu when it was already cooked.
The new President and his team of Secretaries of State also reproduced their inclinations towards intellectual and political superiority and their authoritarian tendency, by designing from their desks the content of the reforms and their plan for implementation, without taking the foreseeable positions of the political and social actors seriously. They would have saved themselves from a lot of exhaustion and they would have given greater credibility and vigor to their proposals if, from the time of designing the reforms, they had taken into consideration the citizens who were going to be affected, maintained some form of dialogue with them, and considered times and movements, instead of proceeding helter skelter, thinking that their reforms would be irresistible and that the citizens would submit to their impeccable plan. This is a reforming attitude that does not reform the practices of the past.
The same practices are carried out on the side of the citizens. The CNTE is a champion of political uses and customs, although various business owners who oppose them on certain measures of the tax reform are as well. From the traditional point of view, we believe that the reason for the government's existence is to offer us growing material benefits, in the form of salaries or business opportunities; giving us individual benefits at a low cost. The public government is seen and thought of as an economic corporation that offers us lucrative goods and services. Politics is then the art of pressuring and intimidating, forcing an advantageous deal, being forgiven, and not having any costs. Politics is not played under the ceiling of the law or of common or public utility, but in the secret enclosure of a profitable deal in which the abusive citizens (the CNTE is the example) as well as the traditional politicians win, which at least saves their positions for a little while longer.
*Luis F. Aguilar holds a Ph.D. in political philosophy. He is a Mexican National Researcher Emeritus and member of the UN Expert Committee in Public Administration. He is currently Director of the Institute of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Guadalajara. His books address issues of public policy, governance and public administraion.
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