Mexico's Presidency Called One of the Weakest in Latin America
03/06/2005
David Gaddis Smith, Staff Writer,
San Diego Union-Tribune
Mexico's presidency is one of the weakest in Latin America judging by the narrow powers accorded it by the nation's constitution, a Mexican scholar said at a conference that ended yesterday in San Diego.
Even so, the nation's top office wielded considerable power for decades under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. But the PRI no longer holds the presidency.
"The dominant presidency that Mexico had for 70 years has ceased to exist," said Benito Nacif of the Center for Research and Economic Teaching in Mexico City. "It has lost the power to direct policy change."
That could be one major reason President Vicente Fox of the National Action Party, or PAN, has been a weak leader.
"Mexico has one of the least powerful presidencies in Latin America," Nacif told a two-day conference on democracy in Mexico held at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego. "Congress can ignore it (the presidency) at no cost."
He said a scale developed by UCSD professors Matthew Shugart and Stephan Haggard gave the Mexican presidency a rating of 1 out of a possible 8 in terms of constitutional powers.
Nacif cited a work by former UCSD scholar Jeff Weldon that explained why the Mexican presidency was mighty for decades even though its powers were weak on paper.
Weldon, of Mexico's Autonomous Technological Institute, said the presidency had been powerful under the PRI because of three conditions: unified government, party discipline and presidential leadership over the party.
Unified government disappeared in 1997 after the PRI lost its majority in Congress for the first time since 1929. In 2000, it lost the presidency.
Mexico now has a divided government, as none of the country's three major parties has a majority in Congress.
Fox does not control his party, even though it has mostly voted Fox's way after a rocky start, said Mexico expert Vidal Romero. "The PAN has decided not to delegate Fox the power to name candidates," said the Stanford University doctoral student. PRI presidents often named major PRI candidates.
PRI presidents pushed through laws, Nacif said. "After 1997, this began to change and Congress began to legislate again," he said. "The PAN has not been as willing as the PRI to delegate to the president its legislative function."
UCSD political scientist Peter H. Smith, whose book "Democracy in Latin America" was just published by Oxford University Press, cautioned against counting out Mexico's presidency. He said at least some of the office's current problems could be attributed to Fox.
He wondered what would happen if the PRI's Roberto Madrazo won the presidency next year. "Suppose Madrazo wins 53 percent and gets a PRI majority (in Congress)? We're back to Weldon's three conditions," Smith said.
But Joy Langston, who works at the same think tank as Nacif, said such a scenario is unlikely.
