The National Anticorruption System in Mexico: Democracy and Efficient Governments 2016-2022

Abstract

The origin of the State as a form of social organization was linked to democracy as a form of government; both analytical categories entail essential qualities in people such as equality and freedom, but with different characteristics, powers, and obligations. The Rule of Law can be an effective check on the exercise of state power; democracy, in turn, can be the most appropriate political system for the protection of fundamental rights. In the context of a deep inequality gap, Mexico lags in fighting corruption. Since the promulgation of the general law regulating the National Anticorruption System (NAS) in 2016 (Congreso de la Unión, 2017), efforts have been made to coordinate the work of Mexican authorities at all levels of government for the prevention, detection, and punishment of acts of corruption. Faced with social disenchantment with politics, democracy, and the weakening of state sovereignty, it is worth asking what is the relationship between the Rule of Law and democracy? What is the socio-political context on which the NAS emerges? How has it worked institutionally? And what have been its repercussions in the configuration of the Rule of Law? These questions are part of a national research agenda, but also of a global agenda in contemporary democracies. I attempt to contribute to the study of a complex relationship between the Rule of Law (as one of the dimensions of quality democracies), democracy (as a form of government in Mexico) and the fight against corruption in the country (as one of the indicators of the Rule of Law) based on the NAS, recently passed into law, and facing serious challenges to function with all its capacities and powers. This relationship between Rule of Law-Democracy-Controls of legality represents one of the biggest obstacles in the path to democratic consolidation.