Political Culture of Mexico

Mexican Political Culture As erstwhile put by Mexican Nobel laureate Octavio Paz, Mexico is a land of super-imposed pasts (McCormick, p. 326). It continues to be and is seen as a melding the skinny of its European and homegrown American bringing close togethers about society, law and government. Its history has had a major influence on the semi semipolitical culture of Mexico, seen through years of revolution, military unit and corruption. Mexico is a considered a new democracy, but in that location is a tautness still seen between democracy and authoritarianism.The country we see today has impressive suppuration yet is still enduring poverty. Its a geographically diverse country, with a population of some 106million people. Latin American political culture is seen as elitist, hierarchical, authoritarian, corporatist and patrimonial. Various economic pressures and calculated changes being make to the system of government are like a shot challenging these traditions in Mex ico, hopefully to ultimately restore the birth between the government and people. (McCormick, pg. 33) Today, many of the politics we see in Mexico do still reflect the alter and hierarchical system of the Aztecs, but we see much change in the country after the arrival of Europeans. Until the 15th century, inbred peoples inhabited the current Mexico. The Mayans and Azteks built a surprisingly sophisticated empire with their testify local governments, concentrate taxes and court system and beyond. The Spanish arrived in 1519 and by the mid-sixteenth century all of what the native peoples had built had been conquered.The Spaniards left Mexico with a huge influence they brought religious heritage in Catholicism, which has gone beyond just a religion in Mexico and is embedded in their political culture. Spanish Catholicism was base on the idea that political authority emanated from God, and all lower levels of society had progressively less indicator and status. (McCormick, p. 3 34). We see this hierarchical influence still in Mexican political culture today, along with the elitism of the Native American society. The unadulterated of Guadalupe is a strong symbol within the Mexican society and their Roman Catholic beliefs.It is said that in December 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared on three occasions to a Christian Indian, Juan Diego, six kilometers north of Mexico City, and identified herself as Guadalupe. It is said that the Guadalupe symbol links family, politics and religion the colonial past and the independent present and the Indian and the Mexican. It reflects the salient companionable relationships of Mexican life and embodies the emotions they generate. (Merrill & Miro, Religion) Devotion to the Virgin Guadalupe remains strong even as Mexican society changes.For example, in a national purview poll found, nine out of ten Mexicans still continued to ask intercessions from the Virgin or other saint. (Merrill & Miro, Religion) Another huge aspect of Mexican political culture is the Constitution of 1917. Many Mexicans attribute the origins of the political system in Mexico to the Revolution of 1910-1920 and its Constitution of 1917. Unlike their American neighbors, the people of Mexico focus and wait to the past, not the future, to there missed dreams and hopes.Many people of Mexico support and have faith and pride in the Constitution of 1917, agree with the goals of the Revolution and support their political institutions. (McCormick p. 333) The Constitution is seen more than as an outline of the goals Mexico has aspired for. Their retrieve in the Constitution but recognize it as a work in progress as it still contains many goals that have not achieved, such as the goal of greater equality. The more Mexico strives towards democracy, the more we can begin to pin down and see the final handicaps that stand in between Mexico and democracy.As Mexico has become wealthier, we see now that their middle class is further expanding an d there are greater chances and hopes for political modernization, hoping to permanently stray from the corruption seen in the past. Mexico is a federal republic, but proponent has been traditionally centralized within the ruling political party. Political power in Mexican politics revolves commonly about camarillas, which is a network of people with common political interests, who have specific ties to a particular leader. all(prenominal) group of camarillas has a single leader and through this, you find that everyone relies on one another for political advancement.In a system like this, unfortunately personalities become more important than ideologies and policies in political matters and behavior. We see through this centralization how corruption in Mexican political history has been so common. throughout the years of revolution and war, Mexican political culture has been hugely tarnished by seemingly credible curtilage of corruption. There is a value of order over freedom. T his is especially seen through the years of the PRI party regime, which held power for 71 years in Mexico.Corruption was rampant, and it has created an intense distrust of government within Mexico, to the point that it is now extremely hard to introduce and collect taxes. 50% of all Mexican people still tang that they have little political impact. Another big aspect of Mexican political culture is the idea of machismo. In short, it is assertive masculinity, seen most obviously in the political marginalization of women. (McCormick p. 336). Women in Mexico only won the right to vote in 1953 and still rarely move into positions of authority, especially within the government.The inequality of women is seen predominantly throughout Mexico, with about 70% of all women in the mid-1990s employed in the tertiary domain of the Mexican economy, commonly with lower wages than those of men. The growing presence of women in the workforce contributed to changes in social attitudes, yet machismo is still a prevalent, traditional social attitude with most women in households subjected to control, domination and violence by men. The violence towards women is extremely apparent, seen in its boldest form in the city of Ciudad Juarez.Over a expiration of 12 years, murders of over 300 women all went unsolved. We do still see machismo more broadly in Mexico, through political violence such as riots, kidnappings and conflicts related to the drug trade, which are already manifold issues on their own. As previously mentioned the political culture in Mexico is still residing within a tension between democracy and authoritarian rule. It seems that as Mexico continues its expansion into democracy, we will eventually see changes to the traditions on what is political culture in Mexico today. Bibliography McCormick, John.Comparative Politics in Transition. Sixth ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning Paras, Pablo. The Political Culture of body politic in Mexico 2006. The Political Culture of Democracy in Mexico 2006 (2006) 1-198. Sitemason. vanderbilt. edu. Dec. 2006. Web. Jan. 2010. Morris, Stephen D. Corruption and Mexican Political Culture. Corruption and Mexican Political Culture 1-37. _Www. southalabama. edu/ /crptn%20and%20political%20culture. pdf_. Web. Jan. 2010. Tim L. Merrill and Ramon Miro, editors. Mexico A Country Study. Washington GPO for the Library of Congress, 1996.