Recent usmex_rw items

El Campo Queretano En Transición

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Este libro consiste de algunos ensayos que tratan de los campesinos queretanos que están inmersos en los procesos que están transformando la sociedad rural mexicana. Los autores creen que el lector de estos ensayos obtendrá una visión amplia de los logros y los retos que definen al compo queretano hoy.

Non Bis In Idem: Mexican Regulation and International Standards

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most heated debates over Mexico’s ratification of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court dealt with a violation of the non bis in idem principle. Whether one agrees with the jurisdiction of the ICC or not, what came to light with this disagreement is that the Mexican Constitution might be at odds with international human rights standards with regard to this Principle. Consequently, there is a need to make a comparative assessment between both bodies of law. While the obvious starting point is Article 23 of the Mexican Constitution, which states this principle, an extensive study cannot stop there but must include its judicial interpretation. Furthermore, only the precedents that seem to stretch the application of the principle will be considered, because it is through these borderline cases that we can establish the extent of the Principle (It should be noted that this approach is not common, since there is no system of precedents in Mexico; however,...

El comportamiento del mercado de trabajo en América Latina en el contexto de la globalización económica

Tue, 3 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

En el contexto de la fase actual de globalización, las economías latinoamericanas han reaccionado a los retos a los que han de enfrentarse para competir en un entorno abierto, con ajustes intensos en sus respectivos mercados laborales. A pesar de la presencia de situaciones heterogéneas, este articulo desarrolla una hipótesis analítica que interpreta como el ajuste de los mercados laborales latinoamericanos se ha llevado a cabo a través de una triple vía que combina el ascenso del empleo informal, el incremento del desempleo abierto y la expansión de la brecha salarial, acompañando a la practica de una moderación intensa de los salarios reales en la región. La ausencia de dinamismo tecnológico propio en la región no facilita el desarrollo de otras alternativas de ajuste o adaptación a la globalización que promuevan economías más competitivas. De este modo, el tipo de ajuste llevado a cabo en estos años abre paso a un nuevo episodio de lo que hace décadas los economistas cepalinos...

Campaign Finance and Playing Field "Levelness" Issues in the Run-up to Mexico's July 2006 Presidential Election

Tue, 4 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0000

While Mexico made great gains in consolidating democracy in 1997 and 2000, these advances risk being severely undermined by doubts surrounding the 2006 election. This article contends that the 2006 pre-electoral environment is, if for different reasons, at least as fragile as that in 2000. If proper measures are not taken to improve electoral playing field transparency and levelness and to help ensure the winner’s selection through a process accepted by all and with broad participation, post-electoral mobilization and short-term ingovernability are possible outcomes. We focus on emerging challenges posed by profligate campaign spending and the lack of disclosure which threaten to delimit the presidential election outcome months ahead of the race. We conclude that greater international attention should be paid to these elections, and suggest that Mexico’s voters and international observers should heed important experimental civil society, media, and academic initiatives...

Analyzing the Performance of Local Government in Mexico: A Political Explanation of Municipal Budgetary Choices

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyzes the budgetary choices of municipal governments in Mexico. Using a panel data approach that includes most municipalities in the country throughout the 1990-2001 period, I investigate to what extent local democracy has stimulated municipal governments to increase their investments on basic infrastructure projects, rather than expanding their bureaucratic apparatuses. My findings suggest that only under a decentralized policy setting, the competitiveness of the electoral arena has a positive influence on the provision of local public goods. I also find evidence that basic infrastructure spending increases when local elections are held, and when the local mayor belongs to a different party than the state governor.

THE INSTITUTE OF MEXICANS ABROAD: THE DAY AFTER… AFTER 156 YEARS

Wed, 2 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This paper addresses the relationship between the Mexican government and the organized Mexican immigrant community in the United States from a historical perspective and within a framework of transnational politics. We argue that transnational relations between the Mexican government and Mexican immigrants in the United States are not new; however, these relations vary across time depending on political and economic circumstances that involve U.S.-Mexico relations. These historical links have provided the basis for the existence of current organizations of Mexican immigrants in the United States as well as the recent creation and development of the Mexican government’s institutions to manage this relationship. In recent years, we identify a change in Mexico’s traditional approach to migration issues in the bilateral agenda, as well as a shift in the relationship between the Mexican immigrant communities and the government. The process of institutionalization of this new relation...

Urban and Transnational Politics in America: Novus Ordo Seclorum?

Wed, 2 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

To what extent American cities are evolving towards a model in which their government is (or is not) adapting its structure to their growing Mexican immigrant population? What are the main factors for such transformation to take place? What is the role of the Mexican government in the process? This paper addresses these questions from two different perspectives, one local, and one transnational.

Tendencias recientes de las remesas de los migrantes mexicanos en Estados Unidos

Tue, 17 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The flow of money sent home by Mexican migrants in the United States has grown impressively since 1990. New actors, new practices, as well as new economic and political interests have emerged around this process. This presentation will analyze recent trends in migrant remittances to Mexico as well as the socio-demographic, economic, and political developments associated with their growth. It will also examine the remittance behavior of Mexican migrants who settled in the U.S., and the official discourses disseminated by the Mexican state about the impact and role of migrant remittances in Mexico.

The Virgin, the Priest, and the Flag: Political Mobilization of Mexican Immigrants in Chicago, Houston, and New York

Thu, 3 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The author argues that in the mainstream study of ethnic American politics, the Mexican community cannot be considered anymore a monolithic group, whose political behavior is one and the same all over the United States. Mexican communities living in the United States have different origins in Mexico, and they go through different experiences of political mobilization, organization, and incorporation through their daily lives in American cities. The initiatives of the local Catholic Church to mobilize the community, the relations of the local church with the local government, and the use of religious symbols with political purposes, are the main components that make the difference.

Mucho Grande Problema: Is That Right Mr. Huntington?

Thu, 3 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000

In this brief piece, I would like to discuss some interesting aspects of Samuel P. Huntington’s article, “The Hispanic Challenge” (Foreign Policy, March/April 2004). I will focus mostly on the Mexican side of the story, with the aim to highlight confusing statements that any serious scholar can rarely afford to make, without expecting a strong reaction from his American peers, particularly, the Latino ones.

When Judges Go Public: The Selective Promotion of Case Results on the Mexican Supreme Court

Mon, 22 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Recent theory in judicial politics suggests that a normative public commitment to a state’s high court can undermine political constraints on judging induced by the separation-of-powers system. If public support affects judicial authority in this way, judges ought to care about influencing the information to which citizens have access, especially when they substitute their preferences for those of elected officials by invalidating public policies. This study attempts to simultaneously explain the Mexican Supreme Court’s merits decisions in constitutional cases and its choices to issue press releases summarizing those decisions for members of the national media. Using original data on the Supreme Court’s constitutional resolutions, I find that the Court was significantly more likely to publicize decisions striking down public policies than those upholding them. I also find that that the Court was most likely to publicize resolutions striking down important federal policies,...

Trabajo femenino, Empoderamiento y Bienestar de la Familia

Thu, 4 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

El objetivo que nos planteamos en este trabajo es examinar los posibles efectos que tanto el trabajo extra-doméstico femenino como el empoderamiento de la mujer puedan tener sobre dos aspectos particulares del bienestar familiar en México: la erradicación de la violencia hacia la mujer y la mayor participación de los hombres en el cuidado y crianza de los hijos.

The Chicago-Houston Report: Political Mobilization of Mexican Immigrants in American Cities

Mon, 1 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

This report is part of a major research project that seeks to explain, from an organizational standpoint, the causes and mechanisms that have led to different types and levels of political mobilization of Mexican immigrant communities in Houston and Chicago. How and why is political mobilization of Mexican immigrants different in Chicago and Houston? To address this question, the report assesses the role of both local and transnational structures in the process of migrant political mobilization.

Paradox of Mexican Firms' Modernization During the 1990s

Fri, 6 Feb 2004 00:00:00 +0000

During the 1990s, Mexico lived like most of Latin American countries, a process of transition that involved economic opening and the liberalization of their FDI regimes. The new policy was based on the assumption that under the global economy, this form of international capital could make important contributions to the country’s development. The effect of direct foreign investments on a country’s development, however, depends on the way in which FDI articulates to the local economic structure.

La Migración Centroamericana en la Frontera Sur: un Perfil del Riesgo en la Migración Indocumentada Internacional

Tue, 6 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000

La Migración Centroamericana en la Frontera Sur: un Perfil del Riesgo en la Migración Indocumentada Internacional

Managing Transborder Cooperation on Public Security: The Tijuana-San Diego Region

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

This paper discuss some concern and challenges regards with the U.S-Mexico transborder cooperation, especially with the role of Mexican local governments to manage the transnational border issues, such as drug trafficking, public security and terrorism. The paper examines two main concerns: first, an overview on transborder cooperation along the U.S. Mexican border, focusing in the Tijuana San Diego region on matters relating to narcotrafficking, public security and terrorism and second, some border impacts on the Mexican local governments under the U.S. border security policy.

A Tale of Two Borders: the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada Lines After 9-11

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper I trace the changing practice and politics of North American border controls and analyze the implications of these changes for cross-border relations and continental integration. More than ever, I suggest, North American relations are driven by the politics of border control. I first examine U.S. border control initiatives before 9-11, and argue that these were politically successful policy failures: they succeeded in terms of their symbolic and image effects even while largely failing in terms of their deterrent effects. I then highlight the border-related economic, bureaucratic, and political repercussions of 9/11. I show why the task of border control has become significantly more difficult, cumbersome, and disruptive in the post-9-11 era, with significant ramifications for the North American integration project. I conclude by outlining three possible future border trajectories.

Gobierno y Congreso en México: necesidad de una relación simétrica

Fri, 14 Mar 2003 00:00:00 +0000

SUMARIO: 1. Consideraciones preliminares; 2. Contrastes constitucionales: las normas supremas de 1857 y de 1917; 3. Entorno cultural de las constituciones; 4. Cambios constitucionales y culturales; 5. Cambio constitucional y consolidación democrática; 6. Propuestas de cambios constitucionales; 7. Consideraciones finales; 8. Referencias.

Beyond Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Ethnicity and the Economy in Enterprise

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Since the 1970’s, the increase in business ownership has been especially noteworthy among ethnic groups in the United States (Light 1972; Light and Bonacich 1988; Waldinger et al. 1990). Some ethnic minority groups, such as Koreans and Cubans, are even characterized as “entrepreneurial” because their rates of business-ownership participation far exceed that of other groups.

Ethnic affiliation, however, does not explain the marginal rates of business ownership among some ethnic groups, such as Mexicans; or entrepreneurship among “non-ethnic” groups – groups not readily identified with their ancestral heritage – such as US-born “whites”. Actually, by definition, ethnic entrepreneurship is limited to ethnic groups and often to those groups with above-average participation rates. And while ethnic entrepreneurship may be associated with economic mobility, group participation rates do not capture this relationship. To address these concerns the present study explores entrepreneurship...

Rural Responses to Climatic Variability and Institutional Change in Central Mexico

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Using ethnographic data collected in three agricultural communities in the states of Tlaxcala and Puebla, this paper explores the intersection of institutional change and climatic uncertainty in the production process and livelihood decisions of small-scale farm households. The research focuses on household response to the neoliberal reforms in Mexico’s agricultural sector of the 1990s and to the series of climatic events that were experienced in central Mexico in 1997, 1998 and 1999. These latter events have been associated with an observed increase in the occurrence of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon. The experience of smallholder farmers with these two parallel processes of exogenous change serves as a rough analogue of the more abstract processes of economic globalization and climatic change. The paper argues that ultimately a farm household’s vulnerability to climatic changes will depend on the series of livelihood decisions the household takes, from season...

Segmentation of Skills and Social Polarization In Tijuana’s Assembly Plant Industry

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Since the mid-eighties, the northern Mexican frontier municipalities have been experiencing a large growth in electronic, auto part and other plants through the investment of the capital from the U.S. and Asia, particularly Japan. It is now clear that cities as Tijuana need to re-evaluate the limitations that the maquiladoras present nowadays with regards to both educational and the social costs.

Introduction to the Panel on Social Costs of Urban and Industrial Growth in Northern Mexico

Mon, 28 Oct 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction to the Panel on Social Costs of Urban and Industrial Growth in Northern Mexico

La democracia ajena: Jóvenes, socialización política y constitución de la ciudadanía en Baja California.

Mon, 28 Oct 2002 00:00:00 +0000

La democracia ajena: Jóvenes, socialización política y constitución de la ciudadanía en Baja California.