Author: Erik Parker, Torch Staff
Dr. Roderic Ai Camp of Claremont McKenna College spoke to an audience of almost 60 students and professors about contemporary Mexican politics on Thursday, April 3. The talk took place in Johnson 200 at 3 p.m. and was entitled “Mexico’s Political Leadership: Has Democracy Made a Difference?”The Remsen Bird Fund and the Sociology Department funded the talk, which related to the current Cultural Studies Program course “Democratizing Mexico.” Camp has written numerous articles and 20 books about Mexican politics.
Camp started his talk by addressing the conceptualization of democracy in Mexico and how democratic processes have changed over the last decade. He divided Mexico’s political history into three periods: the pre-democratic period before 1998, the transitional period from 1998 to 2000 and the democratic period from 2000 to present.
“It’s hard to change the characteristics of leadership that have been in place since the 1920s, despite the existence of an electoral democracy,” Camp said. In his talk, he spoke about how leadership characteristics changed with the election of Vincente Fox in 1998.
Camp explored why Mexicans voted for Fox and what voters expected from his leadership. Camp said two out of five Mexican voters said “change” was why they voted for Fox. He also addressed how voter demographics were different in this election compared to previous elections. There were many young, first-time voters, he said, and 60 percent were under 39 years of age, half of whom voted for Fox.
Camp went on to explain that Fox was very different from other politicians of the 1990s. He said that Fox’s provincial background distinguished him and led to a “revival of regionalism.” Fox is responsible for the “changing origins of the Presidential pool,” Camp said.
He talked about how Fox’s cabinet differed from others in the past. “There was an increase in members who were also in Congress,” Camp said. Additionally, one-third of Fox’s cabinet pursued careers in public service and only one out of five were active members of their political parties. Something that came out of Fox’s cabinet choices was the legitimation of “experience in the private sector for government jobs,” Camp said, since Fox was the only President who emphasized having leaders with work experience in the private sector. Camp also said that Fox chose many cabinet members who had studied abroad.
Many changes that Fox’s presidency brought about were not permanent. For example, Camp said that current President Felipe Calderón’s term re-emphasized academia in leader selection, as Fox did not have a college degree at the time of his presidential bid.
Camp then talked about policy successes that “can be attributed to presidential choices in leadership.” He mentioned the passage and implementation of the Transparency Law in 2003, Calderón’s increase in public revenue and the reform of Mexico’s court system. He said negotiation will be a key skill for politicians because different parties have to come to compromises that allow laws to be passed.
He also said that there has been an increased emphasis on local politics, because politicians are “awarded for their performance instead of their party association.” Camp concluded the talk by reemphasizing negotiation as a political skill crucial for maintaining good Mexico-United States relations. “Democracy has created a very fluid political process in Mexico,” he said.
Camp ended his presentation by taking questions from the audience about contemporary Mexican politics. Students asked about the ideas of the 1910 Mexican revolution, the possibility of a female President in Mexico and the role of ethnicity in Mexican politics.
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