Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-18T03:03:00.126Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Attitudes toward Economic Reform in Mexico: The Role of Political Orientations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Robert R. Kaufman
Affiliation:
Rutgers University
Leo Zuckermann
Affiliation:
Columbia University

Abstract

Since the debt crisis of 1982, Mexico has experienced more than a decade of market-oriented economic reform, but research on public opinion toward reform is limited. Drawing on general findings from opinion research in the United States, this study examines how policy preferences of Mexicans are shaped by social background, judgments about the economy, and political loyalties. The effect of these variables is examined across three national surveys, conducted in 1992, 1994, and 1995. We found that favorable orientations toward the president and the ruling party were consistently the strongest predictors of preferences about reform. Furthermore, as in the United States, sociotropic evaluations of the economy outweigh “pocketbook” concerns; despite many years of reform, both expectations and retrospective judgments are important in shaping preferences, particularly since the 1994 crisis; and social background variables have limited direct influence.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1998

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

REFERENCES

Agilar Camin, Hector 1989. Después del Milagro. Mexico City: Cal y Arena.Google Scholar
de Mexico, Banco. 1993. Informe Anual. Mexico City.Google Scholar
Bazdresch, Carlos. 1993. Auge, crisis y ajuste. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultural Economica.Google Scholar
Beltrán, Ulises, and Moreno, Hortensia. 1996. Los mexicanos de los noventa. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.Google Scholar
Berraeo, Nancy, with Garcia-Duran, Jose. 1994. “Spain: Dual Transition Implemented by Two Parties.” In Voting for Reform: Democracy, Political Liberalization, and Economic Adjustment, ed. Haggard, Stephan and Webb, Steven B.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Buendia Laredo, Jorge. 1996. “Economic Reform, Public Opinion and Presidential Approval in Mexico, 1988–1993.” In Comparative Political Studies 29(October):56692, special issue, ed. Susan C. Stokes, “Public Support for Emerging Democracies.”Google Scholar
Centeno, Miguel Angel. 1994. Democracy within Reason. Technocratic Revolution in Mexico. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Charles L, and Coleman, Kenneth M.. 1994. “Neoliberal Economic Policies and the Potential for Electoral Change in Mexico.” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 10(Summer):341–70.Google Scholar
Davis, Charles L, and Langley, Ronald E.. 1995. “Presidential Popularity in a Context of Economic Crisis and Political Change: The Case of Mexico.” Studies in Comparative International Development 30(Fall):2448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dominguez, Jorge, and McCann, James A.. 1995. “Shaping Mexico's Electoral Arena: The Construction of Partisan Cleavages in the 1988 and 1991 National Elections.” American Political Science Review 89(March):3448.Google Scholar
Dominguez, Jorge, and McCann, James A.. 1996. Democratizing Mexico: Public Opinion and Electoral Choices. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Evans, Geoffrey. 1995. “Mass Political Attitudes and the Development of Market Democracy in Eastern Europe.” Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Typescript.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P. 1981. “Short- and Long-term Effects of Economic Conditions on Individual Voting Decisions.” In Information and Democratic Processes, ed. Ferejohn, John A. and Kuklinski, James H.. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Frieden, Jeffry. 1991. Debt, Development and Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Kaufman, Robert R.. 1995. The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Webb, Steven B.. 1994. “Introduction.” In Voting for Reform: Democracy, Political Liberalization, and Economic Adjustment, ed. Haggard, Stephan and Webb, Steven B.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kiewiet, Roderick D. 1983. Macroeconomics and Micropolitics. The Electoral Effects of Economic Issues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kiewiet, Roderick D., and Rivers, Douglas. 1984. “A Retrospective of Retrospective Voting.” Political Behavior 6(4):369–93.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. 1981. “Presidents, Prosperity, and Public Opinion.” Public Opinion Quarterly 45(Spring):121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Kiewiet, D. Roderick. 1979. “Economic Discontent and Political Behavior: The Role of Personal Grievances and Collective Economic Judgments in Congressional Voting.” American Journal of Political Science 23(August):495527.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R, and Kiewiet, D. Roderick. 1981. “Sociotropic Politics: The American Case.” British Journal of Political Science 11(April):129–45.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R, and Mebane, Walter R. Jr. 1983. “Politics and Economics in Everyday Life.” In The Political Process and Economic Change, ed. Monroe, Kirsten R.. New York: Agathon.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., Adams, Gordon, and Gronke, Paul W.. 1989. “Economics and Politics in the 1984 American Presidential Election.” American Journal of Political Science 33(May):491515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lau, Richard, and Sears, David O.. 1981Cognitive Links between Economic Grievances and Political Responses.” Political Behavior 3(4):279303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lustig, Nora. 1992. Mexico. The Remaking of an Economy. Washington, DC: Brookings.Google Scholar
Lustig, Nora. 1994. “Coping with Austerity, Poverty and Inequality in Latin America,” unpublished ms. Washington, DC: Brookings.Google Scholar
Mercado Gasca, Lauro. 1997. “Una visita a la lealdad hacia los partidos políticos en América Latina.” Política y Gobiemo 4(Segundo Semestre):285346.Google Scholar
Mercado Gasca, Lauro, and Zuckermann, Leo. 1994. “La encuesta a la salida de las casillas: otro ganador en las elecciones de agosto.” Nexos 20(August):74–9.Google Scholar
Morely, Samuel A. 1994. “Poverty and Distribution in Latin America: Evidence from the Past and Prospects for the Future.” Inter-American Development Bank. Typescript.Google Scholar
Nelson, Joan M. 1992. “Poverty, Equity, and the Politics of Adjustment.” In The Politics of Economic Adjustment: International Constraints, Distributive Conflicts, and the State, ed. Haggard, Stephan and Kaufman, Robert R.. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Popkin, Samuel L. 1994. The Reasoning Voter. Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigning. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1991. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reform in Eastern Europe and Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1993. “Economic Reforms, Public Opinion, and Political Institutions: Poland in the Eastern European Perspective.” In Economic Reform in New Democracies. A Social-Democratic Approach, ed. Pereira, Luiz Carlos Bresser, Maravall, Jose Maria, and Przeworski, Adam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1996. “Public Support for Economic Reforms in Poland.” In Comparative Political Studies 29(October):520–44, special issue, ed. Susan C. Stokes, “Public Support for Emerging Democracies.”CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven J., Hansen, John Mark, and Kinder, Donald R.. 1986. “Measuring Change in Personal Economic Well-Being.” Public Opinion Quarterly 50(Summer):176–92.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan C. 1996. “Economic Reform and Public Opinion in Peru, 1990–1995.” Comparative Political Studies 29(October):544–66, special issue, ed. Susan C. Stokes, “Public Support for Emerging Democracies.”Google Scholar
Zaller, John. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar