- Continual growth of stagnation over last 20 years

- Growth averaged only 1% before NAFTA went into effect

- NAFTA hurt the poor and benefitted the wealthy

- Massive debt severely hampered economic growth

- Massive borrowing and petroleum crisis of 1979 made things much more difficult

- Debt in 2003 accounted for 17% of Mexico's total GNP

- Little more than an exploitative mercantilist empire that only exported resources and gave little to the colonies

- Introduced Catholicism to Mexico

- Made the Catholic Church into a power itself in Mexico which circumvented Spanish rule

- Began in 1810 when Creole priest Hidalgo Castillo rose an army of 100,000 after Spain was weakened by the Napoleonic Wars

- After a huge route, Hidalgo was captured and executed but forces didn't dissolve

- Clerical elite continued the revolution but social and economic problems mounted

- This was maintained until Augustin de Iturbide took power

- Self-indulging leader who manipulated Spanish emissaries to give Mexico its independence so he could be leader of its first government

- Only ruled through tyrannical means and by 1823 was overthrown 

- Took the political reigns of Mexico for next thirty years

- Exiled Iturbide and executed him later

- Continued to dominate Politics for 25 years by operating behind elected presidents and military officers

- Repelled Spanish troops but lost Texas and resulted in him being exiled but was called back five years later

- Sold part of New Mexico and Arizona territory to America and was then permanently overthrown by liberals

- Gained support after failed liberal leader Juarez lost power and French, American and Spanish powers were unable to gain power

- Ran on the idea that no president should be allowed to be reelected

- Won power after a military coup to end a period of violence

- Began longest dictatorship in Mexican history after reneging on idea of nonreelection

- Brought much stability and considerable foreign investment with the development of a modern economic infrastrucutre

- Began repressive control over peasants were forced into servitude on haciendas which were owned by foreigners

- Due to his oppressive style, Diaz elicited a similar revolution that toppled early dictators

- Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa led the resistance from the countryside

- Them along with labor movement organized many crippling and violent strikes in the mines and mills

- Francisco Madero published The Presidential Succession of 1910 which used there of effective suffrage as a major critique 

- Madero won an election but had it stolen from him by Diaz. Madero then made a de facto call for rebellion against the Diaz Dictatorship

-Madero gained substancial support by the U.S. and Zapata and Villa

- This led to Diaz abdicating and giving power to Madero, but Madero was an ineffective leader and lost power in ten days

- This led to his commander in chief General Victoriano Huerta defeating him and Diaz's nephew, Felix Diaz

- Huerta was then driven out by the U.S. invasion of Veracruz during 1914 and Mexican rebels

- This resulted in roughly 1.5 million deaths of a nation of 14 million

- By 1916 regional leader Venustiano Carranza, Villa and Zapata had a massive battle for rule of Mexico

- By mid-1916, Carranza defeated Villa and Zapata to end the conflict

- That fall elections were held to choose a constitutional assembly

- Established 1917

-Constitution established was solid and has lasted since intact today

- Politicians were denied right to run for reelection

- Power and influence of church limited; foreigners no longer allowed to own Mexican land

- After Carranza was assassinated, Alvaro Obregon succeeded him in 1915

- Worked to implement land reform and broke up many haciendas and gave it to the peasants

-In 1923, Obregon turned power over to the elected Pres. Plutarco Elias Calles

- Attacked church which led to clerical counterrevolution from 1926-1929

- After a failed attempt by Obregon to retake the presidency which resulted in his assassination, Calles established the PRI so a political party could control the election of the next president in 1946 (acted much like Soviet CPSU) 

Cardenas' Legacy

(1934)

• Drew heavily on Marxist themes when addressing Mexico's problems

- Transformed rhetoric into agrarian reform which spread to 15,000 villages and a quarter of the population benefitting from these reforms

- Also nationalized the oil industry and placed all oil wells and refineries, placing them under a mexican oil firm PEMEX

- Established an official trade union, the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)

• Nationalizations cost Mexican government support from Britain and the U.S.
• Resulted in Cardenas focusing on solidifying party and planning for succession

- Named moderate Catholic minister of war Manuel Avila Camacho to succeed him

- Established precedent of the president's end of term resulting in retirement from all political life

• Land reforms did little to eliminate poverty or inequality
• However is viewed as one of the most revered leaders in Mexican history 

• Avila Camacho cooled the threats of another revolution and established country's first social security system in 1940
• Miguel Aleman pursued rapid economic growth through industrialization, hoping that this would improve overall standard of living through the trickle-down theory
• Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz and Luis Echeverria all three adopted the Alemanista economic policy and attacked any groups that questioned PRI rule
• During Echeverria's rule, debt accumulated, growth slowed and the peso was devalued
• Jose Lopez Portillo stabilized economy and expanded political freedoms
• Corruption grew and Mexico's debt nearly doubled after oil price drop which ruined Mexico's economy

Miguel de la Madrid

(1982)

• Was a tecnico, or a person who had studied business or economics in America and worked in economic ministries
• Called for a "moral renovation", democratic reform, and implementation of market economics 

- Foreign investment was encouraged, public subsidies were cut and nationalized industry was halted

- Resulted in very little economic growth because of high interest rates and prices of oil were low

- Led to decrease of popularity of PRI and an increase of popularity of the National Action Party (PAN) a conservative and business-oriented party

Carlos Salinas de Gortari

(1988)

• Election was illegitimate and was won only through fraud and deceit
• Continued system established by de la Madrid which led to rampant corruption and repression
• Kept most corruption hidden

Ernesto Zedillo

(1994)

• Won election honestly and legitimately but was greeted by another financial crisis
• After scandals involving top leaders of the PRI, the popularity and legitimacy of the PRI plummeted
• This marked the end of the PRI dominance as the PRI only won 48% of the seats and 38% of the vote and Cuautemoc Cardenas of the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) was the newly elected mayor of Mexico City

• Real sense of national identification and identity along with a common language, mass culture and common religion
• Mexicans believe regime is legitimate
• Trends to authoritarian leadership that is easy to see bc of major presidential power in government system
• Care less about human rights and democracy
• Male dominated culture; machismo 
• Women didn't gain suffrage till the late 50s; still great gender inequality
• STRONG patron-client relations, or camarillas which the PRI relied heavily on to maintain rule

• Party that dominated Mexican politics from 1927-2000
• Regime has violated many human rights in the past
• Government at times willing to resort to violence threatens any serious amounts of protest
• Manipulation of clientelistic social structure to help maintain power
• Semidemocratic because it violates democratic principles to keep in power
• Relied upon camarillas to hold onto power
• The Federal Election Commission and Electoral alchemy helped keep them in power during elections
• Fraud became serious issue during 1988 when it was easy to see PRI stole the presidential election
• No definitive political philosophy

1. The PRI have effectively provided Mexicans with tangible benefits that some theorists think are more powerful than the attitudes we normally associate with legitimacy.
2. By tying Mexicans who were poor and powerless to the regime, the PRI was probably able to reduce the amount and severity of the protest it might otherwise have faced which helped contribute from the top-down political system
3. These organizations gave the PRI a pool from which to recruit grassroots leaders and candidates. This helped workers see themselves as potential leaders by following the PRI and staying in the system

• Formed in 1939 by right-wing catholics who disagreed with Cardenas's reforms
• For majority of its existence, was too weak to even present some kind of a challenge to the PRI
• By 1980s, PAN emerged as a viable opposition party
• During the 1990s and to current day, gained considerable amount of support because of their opposition to the PRI