Market Reforms in Mexico: Coalitions, Institutions, and the Politics of Policy Change

(Paperback)

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Market Reforms in Mexico examines Mexico's reform experience in privatization, deregulation, and environmental policy. More than simply a book on Mexican politics, this study speaks to the broader political dynamics behind the success or failure to implement reforms; first, by assessing new policy initiatives in multiple arenas across presidential administrations in Mexico, then by comparing Mexico's privatization experience to that of Argentina's. Through structured, focused comparison of select case studies, the author argues that the fate of dramatic reform initiatives turned on coalition politics (both inside and outside the state), and explains how institutional dynamics and the capacity to solve the problem of policy costs strongly affected reformers' prospects of success.

Reviews

Market Reforms in Mexico is an impressive, original, and meticulously argued work that brings a fresh focus to bear on the by-now familiar question of how and why market-oriented reforms are successful. By juxtaposing Mexico's successful program of privatization and deregulation with its largely unsuccessful efforts in the area of environmental reform, Williams persuades us that the capacity to reform is at least as important as the motivation to do so. This rare look inside the state, and the struggles of reformers to forge coalitions, gain leverage over policy, and overcome the opposition of the losers fills in so much of what has been assumed about economic reform that it forces us to rethink many of the most fundamental precepts of our literature on political economy. -- Frances Hagopian, University of Notre Dame
Why do governments sometimes succeed and sometimes fail in implementing market-oriented reforms Mark Williams addresses this key question in political economy with lucidity and clarity. His stunning case studies of economic and environmental policy implementation in Mexico represent first-rate research presented with literary elegance. His work should interest those who think about major policy and institutional reforms and their impacts on governments, businesses, workers, and citizens more generally. -- Jorge I. Dominguez, director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University
Market Reforms in Mexico goes beyond the first-generation efforts to explain (or ignore) the politics of reform, and complements works emphasizing coalition politics. It is nicely written and easily accessible even to the undergraduate student. * Latin American Politics and Society *
Recommended for upper-division undergraduate through faculty collections. * Choice Reviews *

Author Bio

A former National Science Foundation and Ford Fellow, Mark Eric Williams is associate professor of political science at Middlebury College.