Sustainable Development in Mexico?

Abstract

Mexico holds the potential for a disastrous confrontation or a constructive breakthrough regarding sustainable development. The world's wealthy countries have been largely able to insulate themselves from the costs of the social and ecological deterioration that characterizes the world's poor countries. The Mexico-United States case is a critical one because the 2,000-mile border makes cost-sharing inescapable. Given its revolutionary nationalist history, the Mexican case is also a globally significant test of the capacity of a poor country to negotiate its integration into the world economy. In a now-familiar but still dramatic display of Mexico's commitment to its new international role as the model debtor, recent administrations have sharply renounced economic nationalism in favor of the lean, export-led economy promulgated by northern governments and financial institutions.1 Mexico's deepening integration into the world economy is thus proceeding precisely along the lines dictated by the managers of neoliberalism, and Mexican officials have been willing to sacrifice autonomy in negotiating the terms and conditions of economic apertura. Structural adjustment, austerity, and, increasingly, repression are the prices Mexicans pay for their leaders' commitments to meeting international obligations, obtaining financial concessions, and attracting new investment capital. This is a path inimical to sustainable development. It heralds heightened exploitation not only of rural and urban labor but also of an already severely degraded natural-resource base. Precisely when environmental (and social) protection is needed most, neoliberal priorities demand a reduction of taxes, regulations, and labor organizations, sharp cuts in social expenditures, and a dismantling of strategic state institutions. In contrast, sustainable develop-