Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T18:33:30.660Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Welfare Retrenchment as Social Justice: Pension Reform in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2007

PATRIK MARIER  and
JEAN F. MAYER
PATRIK MARIER
Affiliation:
(Contact author) Canada Research Chair in Comparative Public Policy, Department of Political Science, Concordia University, 1455 Blvd de Maisonneuve West, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8 email: pmarier@alcor.concordia.ca
JEAN F. MAYER
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Concordia University email: jmayer@alcor.concordia.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyses critically the applicability of current theories of welfare state retrenchment to the 2004 public pension reform in Mexico, with the 1995 reform acting as a complementary case. In particular, this article contributes to the literature by analysing the reasons for which a potentially unpopular reform was successfully enacted. Available evidence suggests that – contrary to the existing literature's assertions – Mexican politicians responsible for the 2004 reform sought credit for these changes, rather than to avoid blame. Also, by presenting the reform as necessary to enhance socioeconomic equality, politicians were able to gather substantial popular support and defeat labour unions opposing this pension restructuring process. Hence, we propose that by framing the public debate as a matter of social justice, promoters of pension reform increased significantly popular support for the retrenchment of important benefits from a core group of civil servants, and successfully pressured Congress to promulgate this reform. We suggest that this created a reform path that will facilitate future efforts at reforming the remaining public pension schemes in Mexico.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 585 - 604
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcalde Justiniani, A. 2004, ‘IMSS: Una iniciativa lamentable’, La Jornada, 16 July.Google Scholar
Anderson, K. and Meyer, T. 2003, ‘Social democracy, unions, and pension politics in Germany and Sweden’, Journal of Public Policy, 23: 1, 23–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aranda, J. 2004, ‘Fox se deslinda de las negociaciones’, La Jornada, 5 August.Google Scholar
Arvizu Treviño, S. 2002, ‘Mexican pension reform and risk management framework’, Paper presented to the Conference of the International and Social Security Association, Moscow.Google Scholar
Béland, D. 2001, ‘Does labour matter? Institutions, labor unions and pension reform in France and the United States’, Journal of Public Policy, 21: 2, 153–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Béland, D. and Marier, P. 2006, ‘Avoiding protest: labor mobilization and welfare state politics in France’, Mobilization, 11: 3, 297–311.Google Scholar
Beltrones Rivera, M. F. 2004, ‘Proyecto de decreto que reforma los articulos 277 D y 286 K de la Ley del Seguro Social’, Mimeo, Cámara de Diputados de México.Google Scholar
Bertranou, F. M. and Rofman, R. 2002, ‘Providing social security in a context of change: experience and challenges in Latin America’, International Social Security Review, 55: 1, 67–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertranou, J. F. 1998, ‘Mexico: the politics of the system for retirement pensions’, in Cruz-Saco, M. Amparo and Mesa-Lago, C. (eds), Do Options Exist? The Reform of Pension and Health Care Systems in Latin America, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Bonoli, G. 2000, The Politics of Pension Reform, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, S. M. 2002, ‘Social protection and economic integration: the politics of pension reform in an era of capital mobility’, Comparative Political Studies, 35: 5, 491–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, S. M. 2005, ‘Interdependent and domestic foundations of policy change: the diffusion of pension privatization around the world’, International Studies Quarterly, 49: 2, 273–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, J. L. 1998, ‘Institutional analysis and the role of ideas in political economy’, Theory and Society, 27: 377–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carstens, A. G. 1997, ‘The reform of social security in Mexico’, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Conference Series, 41: 153–56.Google Scholar
Centeno, M. A. 1999, Democracy Within Reason, University Park: Pennsylvania University Press.Google Scholar
Cerda, L. 1996, ‘The Mexican pension reform’, Consultative paper prepared for the Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público.Google Scholar
Cevallos, D. 2004, ‘Mexico: social security workers fight even Band Aid reform’, Choice, 5 August.Google Scholar
Claramunt, C. O. 2004, ‘Assessing pension system reforms in Latin America’, International Social Security Review, 57: 2, 25–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, R. H. 2001, ‘The social construction of an imperative: why welfare reform happened in Denmark and the Netherlands but not in Germany’, World Politics, 53, 463–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Ferranti, D., Leipziger, D. and Srinivas, P. S. 2002, ‘The future of pension reform in Latin America’, Finance and Development, 39: 3.Google Scholar
De La Garza Toledo, E. 1991, ‘Independent trade unionism in Mexico: past developments and future perspectives’, in Middlebrook, K. J. (ed.), Unions, Workers, and the State, San Diego: University of California, Center for US–Mexican Studies, pp. 153–84.Google Scholar
Espinosa-Vega, M. A. and Sinha, T. 2000, ‘A primer and assessment of social security reform in Mexico’, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Economic Review, 1.Google Scholar
González Rossetti, A. and Mogollón, O. 2000, Enhancing the Political Feasibility of Health Reforms: The Mexico Case, Harvard School of Public Health, Document 41.Google Scholar
Guerrero, C. 2004, ‘Aprueban reforma del IMSS’, Mural, 30 July.Google Scholar
Haggard, S. and Kaufman, R. R. 1992, The Politics of Economic Adjustment, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, E. and Stephens, J. D. 2000, ‘The political economic of pension reform: Latin America in comparative perspective’, UNRISD Occasional Paper 7.Google Scholar
IMSS 2001, Memoria Estadística 2001, Mexico City, Mexico.Google Scholar
IMSS 2003, Informe al Ejecutivo Federal y al Congreso de la Unión sobre la Situación Financiera y los Riesgos del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico.Google Scholar
IMSS 2004, Informe al Ejecutivo sobre la Situación Financiera del IMSS, Mexico City, Mexico.Google Scholar
INEGI 2005, Estadísticas Sociodemográficas, Mexico City, Mexico.Google Scholar
Jaime, E. 2005, ‘Fox's economic agenda: an incomplete transition’, in Rubio, L. and Kaufmandr Purcell, S. (eds), Mexico Under Fox, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
James, E. and Brooks, S. M. 2001, ‘The political economy of structural pension reform’, in Holzmann, R. and Stiglitz, J. (eds), New Ideas About Old Age Security, Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Kay, S. 1999, ‘Unexpected privatizations: politics and social security reform in the southern cone’, Comparative Politics, 31: 4, 403–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kingdon, J. W. 1984, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Korpi, W. 1983, The Democratic Class Struggle, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Lau, R. R., Smith, R. A. and Fiske, S. T. 1991, ‘Political beliefs, policy interpretations, and political persuasion’, Journal of Politics, 53: 644–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madrid, R. L. 2003, ‘Labouring against neoliberalism: unions and patterns of reform in Latin America’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 35, 53–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, J. F. 2003, ‘The Mexican Federal Labour Law Reform Process, 2001–2003’, Labour, Capital and Society, 36: 1, 72–102.Google Scholar
Mayer, J. F. 2006, ‘Changes in relations between the state and independent unions? Mexico under the Fox presidency’, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 31: 61, 9–35.Google Scholar
Mesa-Lago, C. and Müller, K. 2002, ‘The politics of pension reform in Latin America’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 34, 687–715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MLNA – Mexican Labor News and Analysis 2004, Various issues.Google Scholar
Middlebrook, K. J. 1995, The Paradox of Revolution: Labour, the State, and Authoritarianism in Mexico, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Muñoz Rios, P. 2004, ‘Reforma equilibrada al régimen de pensiones, piden burócratas’, La Jornada Mural, November 16, ‘Impulsa “sector obrero” reforma al IMSS’, July 15.Google Scholar
Natali, D. and Rhodes, M. 2004, ‘Trade-offs and veto players: reforming pensions in France and Italy’, French Politics, 2: 1, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orihuela, G. and Pérez, W. 2004, ‘Critica Fox privilegios en al IMSS’, Mural, 29 July.Google Scholar
Paniagua, F. 2004, ‘Confían que prospere reforma al IMSS’, Mural, 2 August.Google Scholar
Patroni, V. 2001, ‘The decline and fall of corporatism? Labour legislation reform in Mexico and Argentina during the 1990s’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 34: 2, 249–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pensamiento, D. and Guerrero, C. 2004, ‘Rechazan ir a huelga por reforma al IMSS’, Mural, 16 July.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. 1996, ‘The new politics of the welfare state’, World Politics, 48, January, 143–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, P. 2000, ‘Increasing returns, path dependence, and the study of politics’, American Political Science Review, 94: 2, 251–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Queisser, M. 2000, ‘Pension reform and international organizations: from conflict to convergence’, International Social Security Review, 53: 2, 31–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reforma 2003, ‘Diagnostican en IMSS muerte de servicios’, 2 July.Google Scholar
Reforma 2004, ‘Reprueban al IMSS’, 4 August.Google Scholar
Ross, F. 2000, ‘Framing welfare reform in affluent societies: rendering restructuring more palatable?’, Journal of Public Policy, 20, 3, 169–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitter, P. 1979, ‘Still the century of corporatism?’, in Schmitter, P. and Lehmbruch, G. (eds), Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation, Beverley Hills: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Scott, J. 2003, ‘Public spending and inequality of opportunities in Mexico: 1970–2000’, in Wodon, Q. (ed.), Public Spending, Poverty, and Inequality in Latin America, Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Shirk, D. 2004, Mexico's New Politics: The PAN and Democratic Change, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publisher.Google Scholar
Stracke, C. 2003, ‘Mexico – the sick man of Nafta’, World Policy Journal, Summer, 29–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teichman, J. 2001, The Politics of Freeing Markets in Latin America, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
UNT 2004, Pronunciamiento de los trabajadores ante la ofensiva gubernamental y patronal, Mexico City, Mexico.Google Scholar
Vargas, R., Muñoz, A. and Perez, C. 2004, ‘Economía, tema central de Fox y priístas’, La Jornada, 23 September.Google Scholar
Weyland, K. 2002, The Politics of Market Reform in Fragile Democracies, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weyland, K. 2005, ‘Theories of policy diffusion: lessons from Latin American pension reform’, World Politics, 57: 2, 262–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar