Search

Begin New Search Political Geography Mexico Publication Year within 25 Years

291. Subnational Electoral Contexts and Corruption in Mexico

Author:
Brian M. Faughnan, Jonathan T. Hiskey, and Scott D. Revey
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Scholars of the world's most recent democratization processes have tended to focus on how national-level institutions have developed and how citizens have interpreted and responded to those developments. In this paper, we argue that the distinct subnational political environments that emerge from uneven national regime transitions are important determinants of how people view their political world. Specifically, we argue that citizens' experiences with and attitudes towards corruption are particularly influenced by the subnational political context in which those citizens live. We use survey data from across Mexico to test our theoretical expectations that a multi-party electoral context will heighten citizens' awareness of corruption as a governance issue, even as their chances of being victimized by corrupt behavior is reduced. Conversely, we posit that one-party electoral environments should facilitate a "business as usual" attitude toward corruption among government officials and citizens. As efforts to deepen democracy and improve governance continue across the developing world, our findings highlight the need to incorporate subnational political processes into efforts to under- stand and address such critical issues as corruption and its consequences.
Topic:
Corruption and Democratization
Political Geography:
Mexico

292. Speaking a Common Language with Latin America: Economics

Author:
Jose W. Fernandez
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
United States-Latin American relations have often suffered from a disconnect. While we stress security issues, the region's leaders speak of poverty reduction and trade. They resent being seen as afterthoughts to U.S. policies focused elsewhere. As a result, the region is sporadically open to new suitors, such as Spanish investors 15 years ago, or the Chinese today. Despite their frustration with Washington, Latin American leaders recognize that, as the hemisphere's largest economy and market, the U.S. remains the indispensable partner. The challenge, both for the U.S. and Latin America, is to agree on common economic priorities both sides can pursue jointly, rather than continuing parallel dialogues. Economic growth, poverty reduction and job creation are common elements on both sides' wish lists. Politically, the stars are more aligned than ever in recent history for a renewed emphasis on economics in our relations with Latin America. The administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has made clear that its priority will be economic reform at home and more integrated North American markets and supply chains. From the beginning of his term, the Mexican president called for elevating our economic diplomacy to the same levels as our security relationship, which led to the first High Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) between Mexico and the U.S. in late September.
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, North America, and Mexico

293. Can Mexico exploit its new demographic dividend?

Author:
Nathaniel Parish Flannery
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Can Mexico exploit its new demographic dividend? With contributing research from Miryam Hazán and Carlos López Portillo Maltos of Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together (MATT). Read a sidebar on Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together (MATT's) electronic job bank. Read a sidebar on Mexican migrants' return to restaurant work. José Antonio Pérez remembers as a child seeing migrants climbing onto La Bestia ("The Beast"), the train that carries Central American migrants north to the state of Oaxaca, and wondering where they were going. An uncle told him the migrants were "traveling to El Norte," the United States. "I didn't understand," Pérez recalled. "I only understood when I was older." At the age of 14, he joined them. He left his hometown of Arriaga, Chiapas, in 2003 and found work in a greenhouse in Chestertown, Virginia.
Topic:
Migration
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Mexico

294. The Evolution of Los Zetas in Mexico and Central America: Sadism as an Instrument of Cartel Warfare

Author:
Dr. George W. Grayson
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:
The United States has diplomatic relations with 194 independent nations. Of these, none is more important to America than Mexico in terms of trade, investment, tourism, natural resources, migration, energy, and security. In recent years, narco-violence has afflicted Mexico with more than 50,000 drug-related murders since 2007 and some 26,000 men, women, and children missing. President Enrique Peña Nieto has tried to divert national attention from the bloodshed through reforms in energy, education, anti-hunger, health-care, and other areas. Even though the death rate has declined since the chief executive took office on December 1, 2012, other crimes continue to plague his nation. Members of the business community report continual extortion demands; the national oil company PEMEX suffers widespread theft of oil, gas, explosives, and solvents (with which to prepare methamphetamines); hundreds of Central American migrants have shown up in mass graves; and the public identifies the police with corruption and villainy. Washington policymakers, who overwhelmingly concentrate on Asia and the Mideast, would be well-advised to focus on the acute dangers that lie principally below the Rio Grande, but whose deadly avatars are spilling into our nation.
Topic:
Corruption, International Trade and Finance, Migration, Governance, and Reform
Political Geography:
Mexico and United States of America

295. Siete equilibrios clave de la reforma energetica

Author:
COMEXI
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI)
Abstract:
Reforma energética: siete equilibrios clave para garantizar el éxito de su instrumentación” es producto del análisis y diálogo del Grupo de Trabajo de Energía del Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales (COMEXI). En esta ocasión los expertos, especialistas y conocedores que forman parte del Grupo reflexionan sobre los principios y equilibrios que deben imperar en la elaboración de las leyes secundarias de la reforma energética
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Mexico

296. Amérique latine -- L’année politique 2014

Author:
Olivier Dabène, Gaspard Estrada, Guillaume Fleury, Andrés Gómez, Erica Guevara, Damien Larrouqué, Frédéric Louault, Antoine Maillet, Frédéric Massé, Kevin Parthenay, David Recondo, Eduardo Rios, and Sebastián Urioste
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Amérique latine - L’Année politique is a publication by CERI-Sciences Po’s Political Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (OPALC). The study extends the work presented on the Observatory’s website (www.sciencespo.fr/opalc) by offering tools for understanding a continent that is in the grip of deep transformations.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, History, Elections, Sports, Political Science, Regional Integration, and Memory
Political Geography:
Colombia, South America, Uruguay, Latin America, Central America, Venezuela, North America, Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia

297. Brazil and Mexico: Hope or hype?

Author:
Robert F. Noriega and Felipe Trigos
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Key points in this Outlook: Key Latin American governments, such as Brazil and Mexico, must adopt economic, fiscal, and energy policies that will maximize job creation, sustainable growth, and energy self-sufficiency. The performance of Latin American economies has a disproportionate effect on US prosperity, heightening the costs of the Obama administration’s indifference toward the region. The American economy will benefit from more vigor and vision as US policy encourages economic partnerships with Latin America that cultivate a healthy private sector, energy interdependence, and greater competitiveness in a global market.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Bilateral Relations, Global Markets, Economic Growth, and Economic Policy
Political Geography:
Brazil, Latin America, and Mexico

298. Are Long-Term Inflation Expectations Well Anchored in Brazil, Chile and Mexico?

Author:
Michiel De Pooter, Patrice Robitaille, Ian Walker, and Michael Zdinak
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
In this paper, we consider whether long-term inflation expectations have become better anchored in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. We do so using survey-based measures as well as financial market-based measures of long-term inflation expectations, where we construct the market-based measures from daily prices on nominal and inflation-linked bonds. This paper is the first to examine the evidence from Brazil and Mexico, making use of the fact that markets for longterm government debt have become better developed over the past decade. We find that inflation expectations have become much better anchored over the past decade in all three countries, as a testament to the improved credibility of the central banks in these countries when it comes to keeping inflation low. That said, one-year inflation compensation in the far future displays some sensitivity to at least one macroeconomic data release per country. However, the impact of these releases is small and it does not appear that investors systematically alter their expectations for inflation as a result of surprises in monetary policy, consumer prices, or real activity variables. Finally, long-run inflation expectations in Brazil appear to have been less well anchored than in Chile and Mexico.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Inflation, and Bonds
Political Geography:
Brazil, South America, North America, Mexico, and Chile

299. Fear and Loathing in Mexico Narco-Alliances and Proxy Wars

Author:
Irina Chindea
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Fletcher Security Review
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
In December 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto took the helm of Mexico’s Presidency after running on an electoral agenda in which he distanced himself from the Calderón Administration’s (2006-2012) security policies against organized crime. These policies have received substantive criticism over the past years for leading to a direct increase in violence in the country. The total number of homicides for the Calderón Presidency doubled, reaching approximately 120,000, over those recorded during the previous administration of Vicente Fox Quesada (2001-2006). The number of organized crime style executions – over 60,000 – associated with Felipe Calderón’s war on drugs significantly surpassed the threshold of 1,000 battle-related deaths within a twelve months period – the definition of war according to the Correlates of War Project. The levels of violence in this internal conflict have been comparable to those in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, Calderón’s war against the drug cartels had another unintended effect. It transformed Mexico into the most dangerous country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere – and the eighth worldwide – with 67 journalists murdered and 14 disappeared since 2006. Last but not least, for three consecutive years (2008, 2009, and 2010) Ciudad Juarez, the second largest metropolitan area on the border with the U.S., registered the highest rate of homicides worldwide, earning the nickname “Murder City.” ​ Today, more than one year into the new Peña Nieto Presidency, violence in Mexico has not significantly subsided, and the country has witnessed an increase in kidnappings, forced disappearances, and extortion. Despite the promises made on the campaign trail, the 18-month old Peña Nieto Administration still has not been able to carry out the security measures that it intended, such as creation of a new security force under the guise of a national gendarmerie. On the contrary, its security policies have de facto remained the same as those of the previous administration. Equally, they have contributed to the festering of the narco-violence problem that the country has been facing over the past seven years, and that has resulted in the rise of the self-defense forces across the country, particularly in rural areas and the state of Michoacán.
Topic:
Narcotics Trafficking, Non State Actors, Violence, and Proxy War
Political Geography:
North America and Mexico

300. Gender, Ethnicity and Climate Change in Mexico: An analysis of vulnerability and resilience based on household surveys

Author:
Lykke E. Andersen, Anna Sophia Doyle, Dorte Verner, and Manfred Wiebelt
Publication Date:
11-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper analyzes gender and ethnic differences in vulnerability and resilience to external shocks and stresses in Mexico. Vulnerability and resilience are measured by a combination of the level of household incomes per capita and the degree of diversification of these incomes. Thus, households which have poorly diversified incomes falling below the national poverty line are classified as highly vulnerable, whereas households which have highly diversified incomes above the poverty line are classified as highly resilient. The analysis shows that both gender and ethnicity are almost irrelevant as explanatory factors of vulnerability whereas education levels, dependency ratios and the age of the head of household are very important. Determining the true factors that affect vulnerability is important in order to devise effective policies to reduce vulnerability.
Topic:
Ethnicity, Diversification, Resilience, Livelihoods, Vulnerability, Gender, and External Shocks
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico