Persistent Exclusion in Mexico: Regulatory Governance as an Imperfect Project of Political Modernization

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show the scope and limitations of regulatory governance as a project of political modernization in Mexico—a project formally designed to foster greater inclusion in decision‐making processes. To do so, I present empirical evidence from case studies of consultative bodies in four regulatory domains: the use of transgenic seeds; the regulation of telecommunications; the restriction of junk food in schools; and the control of carbon emissions from automobiles. Influencing the economic, social, and political interests of a wide variety of stakeholders (from consumers to big business and government), these decision‐making processes constituted a “living laboratory” through which to assess the effectiveness of institutional innovations designed to put regulatory governance into practice. Ultimately, this article contributes to understanding the challenges of a project of political modernization in Mexico, a project launched in the 1980s that still has not achieved its institutional strengthening mission of improving mechanisms of participatory democracy.