Market Reforms in Mexico

The last two decades saw a host of governments abandon statist development models for more market-friendly ones. However, not all reform attempts fared equally well. Why do some governments succeed in implementing market reforms while others fail? Why might the same government succeed in one policy area but not another? Market Reforms in Mexico explores these central questions by examining Mexico's reform experience in privatization, deregulation, and environmental policy. More than simply a book on 'Mexican politics,' this study speaks to the broader political dynamics behind the success or failure to implement reforms; first, by assessing new policy initiatives in multiple arenas across presidential administrations in Mexico, then by comparing Mexico's privatization experience to that of Argentina's. Through structured, focused comparison of select case studies, the author argues that the fate of dramatic reform initiatives turned on coalition politics (both inside and outside the state), and explains how institutional dynamics and the capacity to solve the problem of policy 'costs' strongly affected reformers' prospects of success.

A former National Science Foundation and Ford Fellow, Mark Eric Williams is associate professor of political science at Middlebury College.

Part 1 PART I: Introduction and Theory
Chapter 2 Caught in the Paradigm Shift
Chapter 3 Explaining Policy Reform: Strategies, Institutions, and Coalitions
Part 4 PART II: Case Studies
Chapter 5 Privatizing Aeroméxico, Cananea, and Sicartsa
Chapter 6 Deregulating Freight Transport
Chapter 7 The Challenge of Environmental Policy Reform
Part 8 PART III: Generalizing the Argument and Conclusion
Chapter 9 Policy Reform in Comparative Perspective: Privatization in Argentina
Chapter 10 Rethinking the Politics of Reform: Retrospect and Legacies