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Crisis of governance in Mexico from President

Felipe Calderon to Enrique Peña Nieto

Author: Omar Pineda Luna

Co-Author: Arturo García Mata

Student Political Science

University BUAP-México

Session:

RC34 Quality of Democracy

Panel:

Latin America: More

Cases of Democratization

and Diverse Patterns of

Quality of Democracy

Montréal, Québec-Canada 2014

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Abstract

The objective of this piece is to give a general idea of the present situation in Mexico, in terms of the governance of authorities. The crisis began with the six year presidency of Felipe Calderón and has continued with the current president, Enrique Peña Nieto. During the first months of government, the President Peña made a series of constitutional reforms that have created an environment of uncertainty. The research will be directed at the war declared by ex-president Felipe Calderón against drug-trafficking, as well as the principal reforms (energy, education and fiscal policy) sent to Congress by the president Peña Nieto. These have caused a governance crisis as we can say that democracy is present when the politicians take and implement decisions the are accepted by the public, even if they cause damage. Besides this there is a certain sector of civilian society that hasn´t accepted the decisions taken by the government as beneficial, and instead have made a series of protests against the passing of the new reforms.

Key Words: Enrique Peña Nieto, Felipe Calderón, Drug-Traffiking,

Reforms, Governance

Introduction

The concern for governance within Latin American democracies has received

growing attention from those who dedicate themselves to political science and

sociology, as well as from politicians with a responsible social conscience.

Governance is a question that people have always been aware of, but whose

solution creates heated opinions now more than ever. It is a theme that needs

conscious collaboration from those with academia, and those with active political

lives that go beyond simply being a popular voice. This theme has been chosen

because for this reason. But also for another reason. The question of the

governance crisis means the inefficiency of its governments, owing to the problem

of legitimacy.

The excellent emerging democracies are the Latin American democracies, political

regimes that try to consolidate themselves in an international context with the

difficulties that befit their status; with institutional quality, development and social

inclusion as political objectives.

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During recent decades the performance of the authorities who represent the State

have been studied by researchers and analysts attracted by the idea of

systematically following the progress of effective governance in Latin America.

They have often pointed out the diverse problems that have threatened to

destabilize democracy and, moreover, the emergence of government crisis, as is

the case in Mexico.

How is it that a country, that in from the 40’s to the 70’s represented the model to

follow in Latin America, is now seen as a country struck by one of the bloodiest

conflicts in the world?

This text shows analysis of the main factors which affect the governance in Mexico.

The study begins with the ex president Felipe Calderon and his fight against

organized crime, and continues up to the current Mexican President Enrique Peña

Nieto who made a series of constitutional reforms that caused protests in different

parts of Mexican society.

The concept of government

Governance is a concept with a wide meaning, therefore it is necessary limit the

interpretation and establish a definition. Governance is understood as the ability of

a social-political system to govern itself (Kooiman, 1994). It is a system is

structured in a way where the politicians and social leaders communicate with each

other to make collective decisions, resolving conflicts within the law and through

laws that are already agreed on. In this way, the governance comes from the

possibility of balance between social-political systems through its institutions

(Cobían, 2009).

Another idea of governance is when situations arise where the institutions that hold

the collective legitimate power are not able to fulfill the task entrusted to them. One

can say that governance is the ability to govern and analyze itself when situations

like this occur (Reyes, 2013).

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Governance is present when it follows established rules and with them finds

solutions to the demands of diverse social areas, influencing institutions and

reinforcing them in order to make them more effective. It is the reconciliation of

group interests by means of agreements undertaken by the main politicians to back

the decisions that satisfy the majority (PNUD, 2004).

Angel Flisfisch (1989), politician and lawyer for the university of Chile, defines

governance as the quality of governmental performance, bearing in mind the

dimensions of the ability to implement opportune decisions when facing questions

such as challenges which require a governmental response. It also takes into

account the effectiveness and efficiency of the decisions taken, the total

acceptance of these decisions, as well as coherence of these decisions throughout

time in a way that doesn’t produce any contradictory effects (Reyes, 2013).

Governance also requires the willingness of citizens and the local governments to

remain within the limits of the law. That is to say that all parts of society remain with

the rules of the law.

Governance can be understood as the situation where a system comes together

made up of favourable conditions for the government to be able to act.

The word “governance” is currently used in political language as a way of

describing the ability of governments to control social discontent, or at least

manage public insecurity.

Crisis of governance, on the hand, refers to a situation which impedes action and

ability (Sáez, Gobernabilidad, Crisis, y Cambio.,1994).

With crisis of governance being an extreme example within a range of possibilities,

there are many different ideologies for explaining it, as well as solving it.

Inability to govern as a product of contradictions between capitalism and collective

demand causes instability, which, in turn, generates the governance crisis; when

the State doesn’t achieve the demands of society (FIIAPP).

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Government Crisis describes a situation of “the spreading of anomalies”. That

means a number of unexpected and/or unacceptable imbalances between social

demands and government responses (Camou, 2001).

The origin of government crisis: “The fight against drug-trafficking”.

Neither Drug-trafficking, nor the Mexican governments’ fight to eradicate or contain

it are new concepts. On the contrary, every president has tried to resolve the

problem of Drug-Trafficking with, with varying degrees of success. (Oyarvide,

2011). Nevertheless, none had tried to solve it by means of a constant, frontal

attack, against trafficking organizations, as was done by Felipe Calderón from the

start of his administration.

Drug-Trafficking was under control during the PRIISTA system, whose

questionable legal powers allowed the simultaneous protection and containment of

the cartels. The change of power meant the decline of this system, given that the

themes of drug-trafficking and safety were priorities during the six year presidency

of Felipe Calderón.

The presidential elections in 2006 represented an opportunity to strengthen

governance in Mexico. The electoral process was, however, questioned by a large

percentage of the Mexican public and political figures because the victor, Felipe

Calderón Hinojosa, won by such a narrow margin (0.58) against the PRD

candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Facing this situation of legitimacy, the first actions of Felipe Calderón upon

assuming Presidency of the republic were to concentrate efforts on the armed

forces. That is how nine days after having become constitutional president of

Mexico, and after more that 500 murders in Michoacán in less that a year, the

federal government decided to announce the “fight” against organized crime. This

was done the initiation of the Joint Michoacán Operation, in which 5000 troops

were deployed in the state of Michoacán and also included the deployment of

60,000 military operatives throughout cities in the whole of Mexico.

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In this way Felipe Calderón would change the war against drug-trafficking and

organized crime into the fundamental strategy of his government and would later

result in an accusation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) committed crimes

against humanity.

The strong presence and deep penetration of the mafia and organized crime into

the government structure limited the power of the state, that was unable to

maintain control over the whole of Mexican territory. The omnipresence of

corruption extended from those in power to the middle and lower classes of

society, further worsening legal stability and generating high social and economic

costs and weakening the confidence of the citizens in the State (Gilas, 2012).

We speak of a crisis of governance when situations arise where the institutions that

hold the collective power are unable to complete the task with which they are

entrusted (Dahredorft, 1980).

Owing to this social environment, there was a government that rather than achieve

the safety results that it wanted to achieve through the fight against organized

crime, was in fact far from legitimizing itself as a government and representing

social stability.

Those characteristics which triggered a governance crisis during Felipe Calderón’s

term are presented precisely in a study on governance in Mexico, carried out by

the Institutional Governance Study Center, (González, 2013). In order to carry it

out the method of aggregation of individual variables was used. This study showed

an indicator for each aspect considered. These indicators derived from a public

opinion survey.

The aspects considered to analyze governance are: a) Political Stability. It

calculates the probability of sudden threats that could affect continuity of public

policies. b) Representation, Legitimacy and Responsibility. This measures the

confidence in democracy and political quality. c) Government Efficiency. It

estimates the level of corruption in official institutions and the quality used in the

administration of justice. d) Social System: This measures the amount and quality

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of policies that promote education and labour, reduce poverty and inequality. e)

Media: it estimates several aspects of the performance of the media to promote

civility and the right to be informed.

I. Political Stability

Political stability is constantly tested in the most varied fields and levels; in each

one of them a sign of stability will consist of the validity of primary rules to solve

conflicts. (Valdés, 1995)

In December 2006 President Felipe Calderón declared war on drug dealing all over

Mexico. This measure was a consequence of an increase in violence, the

infiltration of drug dealing networks in important circles and a significant increase in

demand and consumption of drugs in the country. A perception survey on national

political stability showed that 90 percent of all respondents consider the

constitutional framework an obsolete one, whereas 89 percent don’t think that

human rights are respected. According to the Public Policies Analysis Center there

is an estimation of 101,199 victims executed by the organized crime and

approximately 344,230 orphans, widows, relatives and/or parents of those victims.

Two million people left their hometowns afraid of what criminal groups might do to

them.

Four out of five Mexicans think that the level of violence shown by organized crime

is rather high (Flores, 2014). According to the Center of Social Studies and Public

Opinion (CESOP, for its acronym in Spanish), 43.1 percent of the citizens consider

crime to be the most important problem in the country. (CESOP, 2008) These

figures reflect the inner political instability related to aspects of governance.

II. Representation, legitimacy and responsibility

A basic requirement to have civilization is the existence of government. This

government, ever since there was a State, has been an institution that creates a

political community that holds power and shares it with state governorships,

congress and courts, gives commands to its subordinates, distributes goods and

material resources, grants and annuls privileges of the authority elements and

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takes responsibility for those aspects of social life, such as the administration of

justice, that can’t be held exclusively by one single group. (Valdés, 1995)

These features are based on two fundamental conditions any government must

fulfill in order to guarantee its existence: legitimacy and efficiency (Dahrendorf,

1980). Both are necessary for government and social order to be stable. Thus,

governance basically consists of the government’s capability to apply these two

key aspects.

It should be pointed out that after the elections in 2006 the President faced a

general state of lack of legitimacy. In terms of voting, he won the presidency

through simple majority, but this never implied that the citizens identified with him.

Legitimacy is an important factor to establish and maintain governance.

Nonetheless, the level of acceptance towards actions carried out during his

administration dropped drastically since 2009 and throughout 2010 and 2011

(Vela, 2012). 60 percent of the respondents don’t agree with the policies applied

during the administration of Calderón; also, 97 percent of them think that civil

society doesn’t participate actively in politics; the highest number reached by

institutions, such as the army, universities and companies, when it comes to

reliability, is a poor 2.75 percent. On the other hand, the Federal Electoral Institute

(former IFE, at present INE), political parties and the police force hold less than 1.5

percent of reliability in the eyes of the citizens.

III. Government’s Efficiency

Governance is a distinctive quality of a political community, according to which,

government institutions are effective within their work area, and effective in such a

way, that citizens think it to be legitimate; this general opinion leads to civil

obedience which will allow the free exercise of the executive power of political will.

In addition, through the proper administration of justice a high level of legality and

acceptance from the citizens can be reached. A government is efficient if it

achieves its goals (Xavier Arbós, Salvador Giner, 1996).

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Criminal organizations expanded to the point that the police force was no longer

strong enough to fight them. This was also a consequence of the poor training and

the inadequacy of the equipment they get. Therefore, the participation of the army

was needed in order to support the security strategy. The army took over due to

the level of danger that these organizations represent.

The way this situation is perceived provides the following figures: 86 percent of the

citizens regard the public policies as inefficient; 85 percent think that corruption in

state governorships has increased; whereas 54 percent attribute this increase in

corruption to the federal government; 89 percent of the respondents claim that

there is a lack of coordination within the government positions; and finally, 27

percent consider that the President was succeeding at fighting crime.

The civil authorities in charge of public security have no financial, human or

technical resources to face a problem of the magnitude that Mexican organized

crime represents. Because of this fact, other institutions had to be called for in

order to protect national sovereignty. The criminal organizations had reached such

proportions that they represented a serious threat to both stability and continuity of

all democratic institutions throughout the country, and, thus, these institutions were

soon involved in the fight against drug dealing (Lara, 2011).

IV. Social System

The function of the social system falls on the authorities that, since the appearance

of a state of welfare, are in charge of healthcare, education, militia, public safety,

and of providing the minimum acceptable conditions of living and labor.

During the term of Felipe Calderón Mexico had 112 million inhabitants, out of

which, 52 million, that is, approximately 46 percent of the population, lived in

poverty. Now, out of those 52 million people living in poverty, almost 12 million

were homeless. Plus, 41.6 percent of them were underage, that means, that 21.4

million people in poverty were under 18. In this regard, it must be said that Mexico

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was first place in child poverty among member countries of the Organization for

Cooperation and Economic Development. (González, 2013)

It is known that out of the 2.5 million unemployed people that there were during the

first term of PAN in office approximately 71 percent had a university degree. It is

noteworthy that 7.5 million Mexicans between 15 and 29 had no real opportunities

for working or going to school. 5.8 millions of the aforementioned, that is, 75

percent of people with no opportunities, were women. Such inequality is common

in almost all areas and it reflects the fact that, in Mexico, only 23 percent of the

members of the scientific community are women.

94 percent of the survey respondents think that public universities don’t educate

students properly. 89 percent think that young people won’t be able to find a well

paid job. 94 percent claim that what the country has to offer doesn´t meet young

people’s needs; whereas 92 percent of them consider that there won’t be a

decrease of poverty, inequality or marginalization.

V. Media

A strong, participative society needs good, reliable sources of information. Among

media, television is society’s main source. The quality, variety and independence

of the media are key aspects on which governance can lean on.

Since Felipe Calderón’s presidency to the present, the levels of ownership

concentration have been rather high. Television broadcasting is in the hands of two

major companies: Televisa and TV Azteca, which develop their own information

policies moved by their economic interests. Even when the respondents believe

that media are still controlled by the government, it seems that it might be the other

way round: it is the media that influence government policies and laws to be

adopted. Political parties wouldn’t dare do something to break the real power this

duopoly has, given the broadcasting of their campaigns on television. The effects

of this television duopoly are deeper because of the inaccessibility of most people

to pay for TV (Ruiz, 2005).

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When asked, 90 percent of the survey respondents said that media tend to

promote sensationalism; 81 percent think that the media act at their convenience;

and 62 percent believe that media favor ideological radicalization.

Effects of Felipe Calderón’s presidency

Governance refers to the political dimension of the social order. In this study, five

dimensions were considered; these assume that the political power is able to rule

the citizens; this means that it can achieve its goals by means of leading their

conduct through commands and prohibitions based on consent and repression.

The objectives can be quite varied. During this President’s term the objective was

to assure internal security, as inherent to the very nature of political power: when a

country’s government is overtaken by another; or when the cities of a country are

subjugated to uncontrolled crime, it is considered a failed one (Xavier Arbós,

Salvador Giner, 1996).

After six years of confronting organized crime, it is in the minds of the citizens that

it was a complete failure for Calerón’s government and so it was demonstrated by

a survey that GEA-ISA carried out during the last quarter of 2012. It showed that

40 percent of all the respondents believed that. This is quite shocking information,

given that in June 2007 only an 8 percent thought the operations weren’t

successful; also, that very same survey pointed out that 46 percent of the citizens

thought that insecurity in the country had increased; and only 9 percent thought it

had decreased. Finally, when asked how successful they thought Calderón’s

government was, in terms of security, 77 percent of the population thought it had

not been very successful, a result that strengthened the governance crisis during

President Calderón’s term.

This result was obtained through a study that involved all five dimensions

presented before, which are: Political Stability; Representation, Legitimacy and

Responsibility; Government’s Efficiency; Social System and Media. Remember that

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the better ability to adapt and institutional flexibility towards change within the

national and international fields a system has, the more manageable this system

will be. Only under those conditions can a system survive (Camou, 2001).

Twelve years after that term ruled by PAN, it seemed that in the elections of 2012

society would punish it by voting against it. This is how society ended up voting

almost inevitably for Enrique Peña Nieto, a tremendously popular character, who

represented PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party).

The return of PRI. Enrique Peña Nieto.

The factor that most affects political order in advanced societies is the redefinition

of the relationship between the State and civil society. If a country has a good

democratic government it is, in great extent, due to the balance between these two

powers. (Xavier Arbós, Salvador Giner, 1996).

Governance is the ideal situation which the government seeks to achieve in order

to combine both favorable actions and conditions within the social and government

fields, and, thus, display its capacity to deal with the citizens’ needs, and also with

those within the political system itself. In this section we will discuss whether the

constitutional reforms are rejected by society or accepted as a major benefit.

Keeping up with that study in which each one of the dimensions can help recognize

a state of governance and that indicate the seriousness of whatever problem that

might have come up, it is now time to refer to the characteristics of the transition

government in 2012, led by Enrique Peña Nieto.

On December 1st, 2012 PRI seized back the presidential chair causing a great stir

internationally and facing new and more complex challenges. Among those, the

accelerated increase of violence caused by organized crime; also, trying to rectify

deficiencies in education in order to create better opportunities for a more critical

and participative young population.

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Just one day after the presidential inauguration, Peña Nieto managed to bring

together the chairmen of PAN, PRI and PRD, the largest political parties, and he

had a treaty on behalf of Mexico called “Pacto por México” signed by all of them.

This treaty involves 95 reasonably concrete resolutions about policies and

measures that would be carried out throughout the new term, among which the

reforms on education, labor and energy stood out because of its importance; just

as important were also the telecom, taxation and the political and electoral reforms.

We can state that there is governance when rulers make and execute decisions

accepted by citizens, even when they don’t fully understand them, inasmuch as

rulers are trying to change the political regime.

The governance crisis implies instability between the number of social demands

and the capacity of the government to respond to them. This instability is

unacceptable to the politically organized characters who use their power efficiently

to threaten the balance of the government in a given situation. These unbalanced

conditions are called anomalies and can be present in different fields, just as it is

described in the following study on social, political and national security issues.

Education Reform. The response from both the union of teachers SNTE

and the independent coordinator of teachers CNTE

On December 11, 2012 President EPN announced an education reform initiative,

which was sent to Congress and accepted that month thanks to the influence of the

treaty “Pacto por México”.

The initiative reforms articles 3 and 73 of the Mexican constitution. Fraction XI is

added to the third article to create a National Education Evaluation System,

managed by the National Education Evaluation Institute (INEE, in Mexico). The

later aims to be an independent legal institution. For article 73 the reform suggests

to empower Congress to establish a professional teaching internship and after that,

teachers can access positions as school principals or teachers in charge of a group

of students only after a selection according to terms stipulated by Congress. It also

seeks to establish a mandatory teacher evaluation and those who fail it will be

dismissed. At the same time, an educational management and information system

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is created, in order to carry out a registration of schools, teachers and students so

that there is a reliable database. It also seeks to promote the supply of healthy food

and ban junk food from schools; finally, it intends to create full-time schools

(Presidency of the Republic, 2012).

Discontent among dissident teachers as well as among education experts broke

out on August 13. That month the President sent to Congress three regulatory laws

related to the education reform. Out of these three, one stands out: the Law of

Professional Teaching Internship, which triggered this general discontent and

caused protest marches in 24 states of the republic.

It was outrageous how fast the initiative was approved by Congress: it took only 8

hours, and the last three initiatives in only 25 minutes (when in the past it took up

to 9 months to analyze them); therefore, the analysis they were submitted to is

rather questionable. In addition, the turmoil outside didn’t really help transmit the

disconformities of the people. All the more, neither teachers’ nor leaders’ opinions

were taken into account, and these are the people who have first-hand knowledge

of how things really are and understand the educational context. Moreover, there

are many investigation institutes throughout the country. One of them is the

Mexican Council of Educational Investigation. It groups several hundreds of

academicians from all over the country, experts on the matter and not even they

were asked about strategies that could be considered to improve education. One

more thing is noteworthy: it is never mentioned, throughout the length of the

initiative, what tools or techniques are going to be used to evaluate teachers’

performance. On top of everything, there has been intended misinformation and

public condemnation in the media of dissident teachers.

SNTE and CNTE organize protest marches

For the first time the National Union of Education Workers, SNTE as it is known in

Mexico, and the National Coordinator of Education Workers, or CNTE, formed a

united front unintentionally, when they decided to organize marches to protest

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against the education reform. Teachers from 24 out of all 31 states were

summoned by CNTE to protest publicly.

More and more teachers joined the marches that members of CNTE still lead in

Mexico City to protest against the regulatory laws related to education, as well as

students of the faculty of social sciences of Chiapas Autonomous University

(UNACH) in San Cristóbal de las Casas, and student teachers joined the protests

interrupting normal classes of nearly 6 million students in four states alone:

Oaxaca, Michoacán, Chiapas and Guerrero.(Flor Hernández, Alejandro Salmón,

Belén Zapata, Elvia Cruz, Israel Ibarra, Rodrigo Sobernas, 2013).

Energy Refom. National Debate.

The initiative of an energy reform had been suggested unsuccessfully by Peña

Nieto’s predecessors. This initiative is very important for the economy of the

country. For example, in 2012, 34.6 percent of the public sector revenue budget

derived from oil. This has caused a weakening of PEMEX. Mexico produced 3.4

million barrels of oil in 2004, whereas in 2012 it dropped to only 2.5 million.

Thanks to the high price of oil, the federal government has been able to increase

its expenses without having to worry about political costs. It is under such

conditions that the government brings up the initiative of an energy reform.

On August 12, 2013, Peña Nieto sent to Congress the energy initiative, which

upgrades articles 27 and 28 of the constitution. It brings seven decades of “oil

nationalism” and the historic prohibition on private property, national or foreign, to

an end. Eliminating these constitutional locks to private investment represents a

huge step for Mexico; nonetheless, it does not explain clearly the operational

aspect of this reform, particularly to private investors. The ultimate challenge for

this important reform depends largely on the regulation of the so called secondary

laws that are still analyzed in Congress until today.

RIVA GROUP, an investigation agency, conducted a study to determine the level

of acceptance of this reform among the citizens. Only 36 percent of them approved

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of this bill, whereas 16 percent expressed negative opinions and their discontent. It

points out that there are political interests involved and questions the privatization.

(Puon, 2013). 26 percent of the respondents agree to an energy reform in the

belief that it will generate more job opportunities; 22 percent think that it will

decrease the bills of gas, gasoline and electricity. 18 percent of them believe that if

this law passes, it will only benefit the country.

In contrast, 44 percent do not agree with the initiative; 29 percent claimed to

disagree, because the costs of fuels and electricity keep increasing; 15 percent

have firmly stated not to support it, because they reject the privatization of

Petróleos Mexicanos, PEMEX (Mexican oils); and, finally, 12 percent have assured

that this reform suggested by Peña Nieto will not represent any benefit to Mexico.

(Rocha, 2014).

There have been numerous marches protesting against the Energy Reform.

Actually, 2 million signatures are being requested nationwide in order to lead the

revocation of the law to public consultation and also to set up national debate

centers.

Tax Reform and the tax collection crisis.

On December 11, 2013, the Official Journal of the Federation published the decree

of the new tax reform by which several provisions are reformed, added or repealed

on the Law on Value-Added Tax, the Law on Special Tax on Production and

Services, the Free Federal Law; the Law on Income Tax is issued; the Law on

Business Flat Tax will be repealed and the Law on Cash Deposits Tax, which will

take effect from January 1st, 2014.

One of the goals of this reform is, without any doubt, to strengthen the capacity of

the Mexican State so that the State takes care of education, health, and

infrastructure. Another one is achieving a fairer system, in which those who earn

more money pay higher amounts and contribute more to public spending. And,

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finally, a reform that proposes to give more competitiveness and that has to do with

having a simpler tax system, a system that is less costly for companies.

The tax reform is also considering the application of an 8 percent tax on junk food;

value-added tax on pet food, the approval of an increase from 11 to 16 percent on

the tax burden in the borderlands and charging a whole peso per liter of soda and

sugared beverages.

INEGI, the National Institute of Geographic Statistics and Informatics has stated

that for a long time the informal economy represented 30 percent of the

economically active population, that is, 14 million people. In 2013 INEGI admitted

that the actual figure was 29 million or 50 percent of people in an economical

activity (Sarmiento, 2013).

A true tax reform will have to collect taxes from the population that is not currently

paying any. Continually increasing the amount of taxes to the 10 percent of the

population that does pay them is useless and has negative consequences, such as

an increase in informal economy. We must end the excessive dependence on oil

and oil product revenues; eliminate the disparity of the imposition of taxes; improve

the strategies to increase the number of taxpayers; and improve the technological

updating, the new productive investment and invest in investigation (Álvarez,

2013).

The case of Self-Defense Groups and the Failed State

Governance is closely related to the Rule of Law, as much as to stability and

security provided by the State. Camou says: “Governance refers to three

conceptual components: efficiency, legitimacy and stability” (Camou, 2001) Let’s

not forget that the Rule of Law generates all the constitutional mechanisms that

exclude the arbitrary and illegitimate exercise of power.

Due to the lack of security that the State was supposed to provide, people

gathered throughout the country in order to protect their families, their income and

their well-being. They rose up in arms and started fighting organized crime. At the

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beginning they called themselves Community Police but as they became stronger

and after killing cartel leaders they started calling themselves Self-Defense

Groups.

Self-defense groups are growing rapidly throughout the country. They are present

in at least 13 states, which represent 40 percent of all states. They first appeared in

the late 20th century but their expansion and notoriety were noticed early this year

when the groups in Guerrero and Michoacán became known.

The government can no longer protect them or their estate. The inability of any of

the government agencies (federal, municipal or state) to enforce law and the

people’s intolerance to crime drove these groups of people to take the law into their

own hands.

Challenges the Current President of Mexico, EPN, must face.

For María Amparo Casar, PhD in political science from University of Cambridge,

political stability and social security are inherent to governance. If the government

lacks stability, then it cannot meet basic demands from the population and

governance is precisely defined as the capacity to satisfy the minimum acceptable

level of welfare.

These are the challenges the President must face: the first one is the government’s

inability to enforce law in the entire country. In states as Michoacán and Guerrero

the Mexican State has lost control at the hands of either organized crime or the

self-defense groups.

The second challenge is the State´s inability to deal with the blockade on decisions

taken democratically within the constitutional framework. That is the case of CNTE,

whose actions outside the framework of law have not only been tolerated, but also

rewarded in many ways.

The third challenge is the lack of attention to the problem of the everlasting

corruption that not only discredits politics and politicians, but also decreases the

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efficiency of public policies. Beyond speech alone, the new administration has

never made a serious commitment to fight this calamity, neither in fact nor in law.

Except for the efficient policy of openness, other anticorruption measures were

postponed.

Finally, the problem of representation was also disregarded. Governance is an

important component of certainty, confidence and legitimacy in the paths to power

and representativeness of the democratic system.

The political and electoral reform not only disregarded these, but also introduced

elements of uncertainty and electoral and post-electoral conflict thought to have

been overcome.

Even with all its flaws the electoral system and its core, IFE, were institutional parts

recognized by most of the population and the reform, far from reinforcing them, has

weakened them.

If these expectations are fulfilled they will partially cover other problems of

governance. But if they keep being disregarded, these problems will keep coming

up and will damage not only the international perception of Mexico, but also its

potential to grow and the political stability, which, in the end, is a prerequisite for

prosperity. (Casar, 2013)

Conclusions

The development of organized crime, state crisis and the emergence of self-

defense groups derives in the degradation of the social web, not only in

Michoacán, but in the whole country. It is only rational to ask what has become of

Mexico.

The country is immersed in a governance crisis that results in an increase in

violence, the privatization of security, corruption and the inefficiency of the police

force at every level, and in the lack of coordination between the federal forces to

face these problems.

20

Nowadays violence is closely related to drug dealing and it covers nearly the whole

country affecting virtually all aspects of the citizens’ public and private lives. The

challenges of governance do not come from the existence of alternative political

systems, but from the need to correct and improve the institutions of democracy. In

order to refer to proper democratic governance it is necessary to understand that

the political parties, the division of powers and transparent elections

(representative democracy) lighten the problem, but do not represent a solution

themselves; therefore, proper governance is based on a series of basic

agreements between the ruling elites, strategic social groups and a civil majority,

which can reach a solution to the government problems.

Consolidating governance in Mexico requires the strengthening of the rule of law

as stated by (Bobbio, 2008) “the rule of law par excellence”. Also, a milestone to

achieve governance is a commitment of the government to apply equality and

freedom, and carrying out public policies that do meet society’s demands. First of

all, society has to be aware. A tool that can help do that is public consultation,

through which the government asks all citizens or specific groups to evaluate

public policies or services. Recovery of the state monopoly on the use of legitimate

force, encourage politicians and civilians to eradicate corruption, and one problem

that also has to be solved is finding the way to put an end to the socioeconomic

polarization of society

21

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