So we all know what happened to Mexico in the 1980s to Present : Under the PRI Dictatorship, it became embroiled in corruption and the wars with the Cartels then Vicente Fox and his successor made it worse, then we had the return of PRI with Npeto or whatever his name was, and now we have AMLO. Well the idea here is difficult, I have a simple question to ask - Was there any point between the 1980s and the present day where Mexico could've changed for the better and who are some politicians/figures on both sides of the political aisle who could've accomplished that? Bonus if both PRI and PAN are dismantled as a result.
A Better Late 20th/21st Century for Mexico
- Thread starter TheDoofusUser
- Start date
Short answer: Almost impossible, we were kinda doomed since the Oil Crisis, and later, the crisis of the 90's.
Long answer: maybe, if you manage to make the National Democratic Front (an electoral coalition that included essentially most if not all leftist and center-leftist parties and organizations in the country at that time) to win the elections of 1988 to avoid the rise of neoliberalism in the country and maintain some sort of a welfare state/social democrat form of capitalism.
The biggest question you need to answer yourself is: considering that the NDF wins, what now?. How Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas (the presidential candidate of 1988) will deal with the economic crisis, including inflation and the excessive dependence on oil; how the coalition will manage to work together, if they can work together in the first place; or what will the attitude of the technocrat opposition (the PRI), the conservatives (the PAN), the marxist guerrillas (the FLN) and the nascent indigenous movements, towards the NDF government; etc.
You can't dismantle either the PRI or the PAN since the former one is literally the Party of the Revolution, so even if they have abandoned their nationalist revolutionary stance, they have legitimacy. The PAN is a christian (catholic) party, and most of the population is catholic. Take that into account.
Long answer: maybe, if you manage to make the National Democratic Front (an electoral coalition that included essentially most if not all leftist and center-leftist parties and organizations in the country at that time) to win the elections of 1988 to avoid the rise of neoliberalism in the country and maintain some sort of a welfare state/social democrat form of capitalism.
The biggest question you need to answer yourself is: considering that the NDF wins, what now?. How Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas (the presidential candidate of 1988) will deal with the economic crisis, including inflation and the excessive dependence on oil; how the coalition will manage to work together, if they can work together in the first place; or what will the attitude of the technocrat opposition (the PRI), the conservatives (the PAN), the marxist guerrillas (the FLN) and the nascent indigenous movements, towards the NDF government; etc.
You can't dismantle either the PRI or the PAN since the former one is literally the Party of the Revolution, so even if they have abandoned their nationalist revolutionary stance, they have legitimacy. The PAN is a christian (catholic) party, and most of the population is catholic. Take that into account.
I would actually argue the opposite and say Mexico needed to embrace Neoliberalism from day one.
NAFTA was supposed to solve the shortages of labor of America and satisfy the ever-growing demand of commodities and cheap products Americans had, but in fairness, this never happened. Instead, they preferred to outsource everything to China, making them eat Mexico's lunch.
Mexico could have been the "Factory of the World" but instead, it never developed its true potential.
This is VERY easy. All you neeed Deng is to confine economic liberalization of China to hungarian/yugoslav levels and not invite in foreign capital.
Without China as competition, Mexico's position as the US's neighbor+a substantial supply of cheap labor puts it in a position to AT MINIMUM do visibly better than ours.
Without China as competition, Mexico's position as the US's neighbor+a substantial supply of cheap labor puts it in a position to AT MINIMUM do visibly better than ours.
Do you realize Mexico embracing neoliberalism without any kind of transition period will only result in an economic shock situation like modern Russia? If all that will only radicalize even more the population.
One way would be to extend the cold war a bit with the following results:
1. Outsourcing goes south to Mexico instead of to China, as the Tianemen Square massacre is a bigger Cold War incident than OTL. USA embraces NAFTA earlier.
2. Chiapas rebellion either leads to 1. More US investment/support in Mexico to prevent social instability or 2. Chiapas/the poorest parts of Mexico seceding which both scares the political elites enough to reform now that there is a threat to their power and also removes the biggest drain on the economy.
A big focus on education both institutionally and culturally that creates a poor but educated workforce would attract investment without necessarily going full Neoliberal esp. if state owned firms are nimble enough to leverage economies of scale while being competitive.
1. Outsourcing goes south to Mexico instead of to China, as the Tianemen Square massacre is a bigger Cold War incident than OTL. USA embraces NAFTA earlier.
2. Chiapas rebellion either leads to 1. More US investment/support in Mexico to prevent social instability or 2. Chiapas/the poorest parts of Mexico seceding which both scares the political elites enough to reform now that there is a threat to their power and also removes the biggest drain on the economy.
A big focus on education both institutionally and culturally that creates a poor but educated workforce would attract investment without necessarily going full Neoliberal esp. if state owned firms are nimble enough to leverage economies of scale while being competitive.