A New Time for Mexico (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: A New Time for Mexico Russell Crandall A New Time for Mexico. By Carlos Fuentes. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1997. 220 pp. $12.95 paper. Mexico is not an easy country to understand, especially for foreigners. Its history of conquest, civil wars, invasion, and revolution leave many observers unable to put a finger on exactly what Mexico is and how it operates. This confusion is exacerbated [End Page 236] by Mexico’s current process of political liberalization that, albeit in fits and starts, creates even more uncertainty as to what will be the future path for Mexico. In his book A New Time for Mexico, Carlos Fuentes tries to make sense of this new era in Mexican politics and provides an agenda of what Mexico must do if it is to evolve into a prosperous, democratic, and just society. Unfortunately, Fuentes’ erudite style, characterized by art and literary allusions, as well as esoteric tidbits from Mexican history, leaves all but the most informed readers confused and unable to link these references to his subsequent recommendations for a new Mexico. In what is definitely the strongest part of the book, Fuentes begins by explaining how Mexico’s authoritarian traditions lay at the heart of why the country suffers from the chronic problems of poverty, instability, and corruption. In his view, the authoritarian heritage that still plagues Mexico today is a descendant of the brutal and undemocratic systems born from the Aztecs and the Spanish. Once this fact is taken into consideration, it becomes much easier to see how daunting contemporary Mexico’s attempts at achieving democracy and justice truly are. Due to this hierarchical tradition, Fuentes believes that any legitimate democratic change must come from below. In other words, civil society, not the ruling party, must demand and eventually embrace democratic reforms. For Fuentes, this bottom-up form of democracy does not mean that Mexico should simply replicate the U.S. example. Rather, Mexico must promote its own unique brand of democracy that reconciles the need for greater participation and accountability while preserving Mexico’s sovereignty and proud heritage. Yet, as we will see, Fuentes’ recommendations for Mexico are replete with inconsistencies and voids that seriously undermine his argument. In order to analyze the transformation taking place today in Mexico, one must first understand the modern political system that arose out of the ashes of the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s and 1920s. In an attempt to quell the residual civil wars and factionalism that plagued post-revolutionary Mexico, President Calles, and then Cardenas, created a highly centralized, top-down political system, dominated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Yet, while the PRI - in a system not unlike those [End Page 237] of the Aztecs or Spanish - succeeded in bringing stability and economic growth to Mexico for the following five decades, it did little to promote democracy or accountability, the very characteristics that Mexico now needs. Indeed, for much of the twentieth century the Mexican people traded democracy for the PRI’s assurance that growth and stability would continue. This social contract no longer exists. Beginning in the late 1960s with violent student protests and continuing through the 1970s and 1980s with inflation and the debt crisis, the Mexican people have endured shocks which have made them increasingly unwilling to sit quietly and let the PRI control all aspects of political life. This frustration came to a head in the presidential elections of 1988 when former PRI member Cuauthemoc Cardenas left the party and ran an impressive campaign that greatly challenged the PRI’s candidate Carlos Salinas, with many observers believing that only graft saved the election for Salinas. This election galvanized Mexican civil society. Since then, new advocacy groups have popped up all over the Mexican political landscape. But what should they demand? Where does Mexico need to go in the next century? Fuentes uses the last part of the book to try and answer these overwhelming questions. Fuentes believes that the solutions definitely do not lie with the North American model. He lashes out at the “social Darwinism” of U.S. capitalism and believes that Mexico needs something with more of a social consciousness...