Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T21:50:03.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Deep Politics: Community Adaptations to Political Clientelism in Twenty-First-Century Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Turid Hagene
Affiliation:
Oslo and Akershus University College
Íñigo González-Fuente
Affiliation:
Oslo and Akershus University College
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The specific contribution of this study is to explore how a communitarian lifeworld. prepares the ground for practices of political clientelism without requiring the foundational favor“ noted in other contexts. Based on the encounter between ethnographies from two different communities of the Mesoamerican tradition in Mexico, the article argues that this lifeworld is forged by the habitual ways in which most collective tasks are carried out, that is, by forming and participating in networks. First, we offer a concrete description of the operation of two problem-solving networks of political clientelism in these communities. These networks are considered legitimate since they appear to be part of the communitarian practices. Second, we observe that the state often fails to reach out to the citizens with many social benefits, and we maintain that the problem-solving networks bridge the gap between the citizens and the state. Third, we argue that the ethnographic approach has been of paramount importance in reaching these findings, which are hardly attainable without this method. We consider that the workings of the clientelist networks represent a deep expression of people's communitarian lifeworlds.

Resumen

RESUMEN

El presente trabajo explora cómo el denominado mundo de vida comunitario facilita las prácticas de clientelismo político sin la necesidad de un “favor inicial”, como se ha documentado en otros contextos. Con base en dos etnografías realizadas en diferentes comunidades mexicanas de tradición mesoamericana, argumentamos que el mundo de vida comunitario se construye a través de las formas habituales en las que la mayoría de tareas colectivas son llevadas a cabo por los sujetos: estableciendo y participando en redes. Primero, ofrecemos una descripción pormenorizada del funcionamiento en esas comunidades de dos redes clientelares solucionadoras de problemas. De hecho, estas redes se tienen como legítimas debido a que la población las considera parte de sus prácticas comunitarias. Segundo, observamos que el Estado muchas veces falla a la hora de cubrir las necesidades de los ciudadanos en cuanto a servicios sociales se refiere, y es en esos vacíos que las redes solucionadoras de problemas pueden tender puentes entre ciudadanos y estado. Tercero, argumentamos que la metodología etnográfica ha sido decisiva para alcanzar estos resultados, de manera que ello no hubiera sido posible sin estas herramientas metodológicas. Finalmente; consideramos que el funcionamiento de las redes clientelares es una representación profunda de los mundos de vida comunitarios.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

The authors are grateful for the constructive and insistent critique of the anonymous reviewers of the journal, which contributed considerably to improve our article. Turid Hagene would also like to thank the following institutions for financing fieldwork: Oslo and Akershus University College, Institute for Comparative Cultural Studies, and the Nansen Foundation.

References

REFERENCES

Adler-Lomnitz, Larissa 1994 Redes sociales, cultura y poder: Ensayos de antropología latinoamericana. Mexico City: FLACSO; Porrúa.Google Scholar
Adler-Lomnitz, Larissa, Salazar, Rodrigo, and Adler, Ilya 2004 Simbolismo y ritual en la política mexicana. Mexico City: Siglo XXI.Google Scholar
Aguilar, Adrián Guillermo 2008Peri-Urbanization, Illegal Settlements and Environmental Impact in Mexico City.” Cities 25 (3): 133145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Álvarez-Rivadulla, María José 2012Clientelism or Something Else? Squatter Politics in Montevideo.” Latin American Politics and Society 54 (1): 3763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Auyero, Javier 1999From the Client's Point(s) of View: How Poor People Perceive and Evaluate Political Clientelism.” Theory and Society 28 (2): 297334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Auyero, Javier 2000The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina: An Ethnographic Account.” Latin American Research Review 35 (3): 5582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Auyero, Javier 2001 Poor People's Politics: Peronist Survival Networks and the Legacy of Evita. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Auyero, Javier 2002Clientelismo político en Argentina: Doble vida y negación colectiva.” Perfiles Latinoamericanos 20:3352.Google Scholar
Auyero, Javier, Lapegna, Pablo, and Page, Fernanda 2009Patronage Politics and Contentious Collective Action: A Recursive Relationship.” Latin American Politics and Society 51 (3): 131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayard de Volo, Lorraine, and Schatz, Edward 2004From the Inside Out: Ethnographic Methods in Political Research.” PS: Political Science and Politics 37 (2): 267–71.Google Scholar
Brusco, Valeria, Nazareno, Marcelo, and Stokes, Susan 2004Vote Buying in Argentina.” Latin American Research Review 39 (2): 6688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryman, Alan 2004 Social Research Methods. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Combes, Héléne 2011¿Dónde estamos con el estudio del clientelismo?Desacatos 36:1332.Google Scholar
Cornelius, Wayne A. 2004Mobilized Voting in the 2000 Elections: The Changing Efficacy of Vote Buying and Coercion in Mexican Electoral Politics.” In Mexico's Pivotal Democratic Election: Candidates, Voters, and the Presidential Campaign of 2000, edited by Domínguez, Jorge and Lawson, Chappell, 4766. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Correa, Hernán 2010Comunidades históricas en la gran ciudad: Emergencia político-cultural en Tecámac, Estado de México.” Nueva Antropología 73:5985.Google Scholar
Dehouve, Danièle 2009El lenguaje ritual de los mexicas: Hacia un método de análisis.” In Image and Ritual in the Aztec World, edited by Peperstraete, Sylvia, 1933. Oxford: BAR International Series 1896.Google Scholar
de Vries, Pieter 2002Vanishing Mediators: Enjoyment as a Political Factor in Western Mexico.” American Ethnologist 29 (4): 901927.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Cayeros, Alberto, Estévez, Federico, and Magaloni, Beatriz 2009Welfare Benefits, Canvassing, and Campaign Handouts.” In Consolidating Mexico's Democracy: The 2006 Presidential Campaign in Comparative Perspective, edited by Domínguez, Jorge, Lawson, Chappell, and Moreno, Alejandro, 229245. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Foweraker, Joe 1990 Introduction to Popular Movements and Political Change in Mexico, edited by Foweraker, Joe and Craig, Ann, 320. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Fox, Jonathan 1994The Difficult Transition from Clientelism to Citizenship: Lessons from Mexico.” World Politics 46 (2): 151184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Jonathan 2012State Power and Clientelism: Eight Propositions for Discussion.” In Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics, edited by Hilgers, Tina, 187212. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Jonathan, and Haight, Libby 2009El condicionamiento político del acceso a programas sociales en México.” In Candados y contrapesos: La protección de los programas, políticas y derechos sociales en México y América Latina, edited by Gómez-Álvarez, David, 71102. Santa Cruz: Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, University of California Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
Gay, Robert 1999The Broker and the Thief.” Luso-Brazilian Review 36 (1): 4970.Google Scholar
Gay, Robert 2006The Even More Difficult Transition from Clientelism to Citizenship: Lessons from Brazil.” In Out of the Shadows: Political Action and Informal Economy in Latin America, edited by Fernández-Kelly, Patricia and Schefner, Jon, 195217. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
González Hernández, José Roberto, and Hernández, Guadalupe Margarita González 2011Entre autonomía y clientelismo: Clubes de migrantes zacatecanos.” Desacatos 36:85106.Google Scholar
Hagene, Turid 2007Diversidad cultural y democracia en la ciudad de México: El caso de un pueblo originario.” Anales de Antropología 41 (1): 173203.Google Scholar
Hagene, Turid 2010Elections in the Context of Everyday Practices: Views from a Pueblo Originario in Mexico City 2006.” Forum for Development Studies 37 (2): 217241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicken, Allen 2011Clientelism.” Annual Review of Political Science 14:289310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilgers, Tina 2008Causes and Consequences of Political Clientelism: Mexico's PRD in Comparative Perspective.” Latin American Politics and Society 50 (4): 123153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilgers, Tina 2009Who Is Using Whom? Clientelism from the Client's Perspective.” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research 15 (1): 5175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilgers, Tina 2011Clientelism and Conceptual Stretching: Differentiating among Concepts and among Analytical Levels.” Theory and Society 40 (5): 567588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilgers, Tina 2012Democratic Processes, Clientelistic Relationships, and the Material Goods Problem.” In Clientelism in Everyday Latin American Politics, edited by Hilgers, Tina, 322. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IEDF (Instituto Electoral del Distrito Federal) 2012 Estadística de los resultados 2012. http://secure.iedf.org.mx/resultados2012/seccion_jd.php.Google Scholar
INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía) 2010 Panorama sociodemográfico del Distrito Federal. http://www.inegi.org.mx/prod_serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/censos/poblacion/2010/panora_socio/df/panorama_df.pdf, p. 18.Google Scholar
INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía) 2011 México en cifras. Xico,' Veracruz. http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/mexicocifras/default.aspx?e=30.Google Scholar
Lazar, Sian 2004Personalist Politics, Clientelism and Citizenship: Local Elections in El Alto, Bolivia.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 23 (2): 228243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magaloni, Beatriz, Díaz-Cayeros, Alberto, and Estévez, Federico 2007Clientelism and Portfolio Diversification: A Model of Electoral Investment with Applications to Mexico.” In Patrons, Clients, and Policies, edited by Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven I., 182205. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medina, Andrés 2009Pueblos antiguos, ciudad diversa: Hacia una definición de los pueblos originarios de la ciudad de México.” Anales de Antropología 41 (2): 952.Google Scholar
Medina, Luis Fernando, and Stokes, Susan C. 2007Monopoly and Monitoring: An Approach to Political Clientelism.” In Patrons, Clients, and Policies, edited by Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven I., 6883. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montambeault, Françoise 2011Overcoming Clientelism through Local Participatory Institutions in Mexico: What Type of Participation?Latin American Politics and Society 53 (1): 91124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nichter, Simeon 2008Vote Buying or Turnout Buying? Machine Politics and the Secret Ballot.” American Political Science Review 102 (1): 1931.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro 1998Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology.” Latin Annual Review of Sociology 24:124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivoal, Isabelle, and Salazar, Noel B. 2013Contemporary Ethnographic Practice and the Value of Serendipity.” Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale 21 (2): 178185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romero Tovar, Teresa 2009 “Antropología y los pueblos originarios de la ciudad de México: Las primeras reflexiones.” Argumentos, no. 59:4565.Google Scholar
Roniger, Luis 1990 Hierarchy and Trust in Modern Mexico and Brazil. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Roniger, Luis 2004Political Clientelism, Democracy, and Market Economy.” Comparative Politics 36 (3): 353375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schatz, Edward 2009Ethnographic Immersion and the Study of Politics.” In Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power, edited by Schatz, Edward, 122. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schefner, Jon 2001Coalition and Clientelism in Mexico.” Theory and Society 30 (5): 593628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, James 1977Patronage or Exploitation?” In Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean Societies, edited by Gellner, Ernest and Waterbury, John, 2140. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Serrano Salazar, Oziel 2001 La reforma política del Distrito Federal. Mexico City: CENAM; Plaza y Valdés.Google Scholar
Szwarcberg, Mariela 2011The Microfoundations of Political Clientelism: Lessons from the Argentine Case.” Working Paper #377. Boone, NC: Kellogg Institute.Google Scholar
Szwarcberg, Mariela 2012Revisiting Clientelism: A Network Analysis of Problem-Solving Networks in Argentina.” Social Networks 34 (2): 230240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tosoni, María M. 2007Notas sobre el clientelismo político en la ciudad de México.” Perfiles Latinoamericanos 29:4769.Google Scholar