Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2013

Great Expectations: Mexican Democracy and Its Discontents

José Antonio Aguilar Rivera

March 2013

The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies

Abstract

There is no doubt that democracy in Mexico has fallen short of expectations: it has not generated more social and economic equality; few people feel now that their participation in politics is more effective than before; the elected government often fails to respond to citizens’ demands; and some parts of the country now seem to be under the control of violent drug cartels. These failings certainly fuel the discontent of citizens with their democratic regime. Yet my aim is to focus on other sources, less apparent, of intense political dissatisfaction. Mexicans are not satisfied with their democratic government not only because it has failed to provide them with the social goods that are usually expected, realistically or unrealistically, from democracy. They are also unhappy with the perceived gap between their idealized concept of democracy and the workings of the existing democratic institutions. I will argue that to some extent an ahistorical, peculiar image of democracy has been constructed. My basic claim is that the critical standard of democracy held by Mexicans is flawed. This ideological misconception, I will try to demonstrate, has had pernicious effects, because it has fed unreasonable expectations and has blinded Mexicans to feasible reforms. I analyze specifically the role played by the pursuit of equity (equidad) and the ban on negative campaigning.