The Mexican state shows clearly the way the prevailing political culture can shape and give direction to political institutions. The political institutions of Mexico are similar to those of the United States, but as Cornelius and Craig note, what seems the same on paper is not the same in operation because the prevailing political culture is one-party rule at all levels: "Until recently, selection as the candidate of the official party has been tantamount to election, except in some municipalities and a handful of congressional districts where opposition parties are so strong that they cannot be ignored" (Cornelius and Craig 25).
The prevailing features of the system are found in the following elements common to many authoritarian regimes: limited but not responsible pluralism; low popular mobilization, with most citizen participation in the electoral process mobilized by the government itself; competition for public office and government benefits restricted mainly to supporters of the system; centralized and often arbitrary decision making by one leader or small group; weak ideological constraints on public policy making; extensive government manipulation of the mass media (Cornelius and Craig 25-26).
The authors also note the power of centralism in the Mexican system, as might be expected in a one-party state. Interestingly, the public has become disenchanted with this centralization, and this fact has contributed to the move toward change and has also indicated some of the values-changes that will be necessary to make this a less centralized state. Clearly, the introduction of a multi-party system over a one-party system would be beneficial, but so far this has been possible only in regional politics where a strong second party has developed and has gained power over the years. Some efforts have already been made by the PRI to introduce changes that would address the public's dissatisfaction with centralism, and indeed the people tend to take things in hand themselves from time to time by concentrating on regionalism when they perceive that...
Regional pride is a value that has had a beneficial effect on decentralization, and this could be further nurtured as a way of developing opposition parties to challenge the control of the PRI over every facet of Mexican political life (Cornelius and Craig 27).
Surveys have shown that Mexican women are largely alienated from politics, and while there is also evidence that fewer women than men are interested in politics in the United Stats, the gap in the U.S. is relatively small. As Roderic Ai Camp notes,
Although many women today obtain an advanced education and a large percentage are in the workforce, opportunities for women are fewer than for men. In part this is due to education, since women over the age of fifteen accounted for 63% of illiterate Mexicans. (Camp 91)
Mexico is still moving into a more modern democracy after decades of rule by the one ruling party. The place of women in Mexican society is still secondary, more like the U.S., and Canada in the nineteenth century or even before, and it will be some time before Mexico achieves parity with the U.S. And Canada on this dimension.
Works Cited
Burnaby, Barbara and Thomas Ricento. Language and Politics in the United States and Canada: Myths and Realities. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998.
Camp, Roderic Ai. Politics in Mexico: The Decline of Authoritarianism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Carroll, Michael P. "Who Owns Democracy? Explaining the Long-Running Debate over Canadian/American Value Differences."
The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Volume 42, Issue 3 (2005). March 26, 2007. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5012185252.
Cornelius, Wayne a. And Ann L. Craig, the Mexican Political System in Transition. San Diego: University of California, 1991.
Staudt, Kathleen. Policy, Politics & Gender: Women Gaining Ground. Hartford, Connecticut: Kumarian Press, 1998.
