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Neoliberalism, Corporatism, and Small Business Political Activism in Contemporary Mexico∗

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Kenneth C. Shadlen
Kenneth C. Shadlen*
Affiliation:
Brown University
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Abstract

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In the 1980s and 1990s, neoliberalism and changing policy-making regimes presented social actors throughout Latin America with new challenges and opportunities. This article analyzes the political strategies developed by two organizations representing small manufacturers in Mexico for responding to these sweeping economic and political changes, emphasizing the organizational bases of political activism. Strategies are assessed according to organizations' public expression of support for or opposition to economic policies, the extent to which organizations work within existing arrangements for interest representation, and the political alliances made by small business organizations and their leaders. One strategy in Mexico entailed acquiescing to radical economic policy changes, deploying significant resources to preserve a set of corporatist institutions that regulated business association, and supporting the government incumbents. Another strategy entailed voicing persistent public criticism of neoliberalism, spearheading a national campaign against business corporatism, and supporting the Center-Left opposition. Analysis of these strategies demonstrates the important effects of institutional legacies during periods of regime change. The perseverance of corporatist institutions can make it difficult for weak actors to shed old modes of activism, notwithstanding a changed array of material and political incentives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , 2000 , pp. 73 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

∗

I wish to thank the LARR editors as well as five anonymous reviewers along with Jeffrey Anderson and Eduardo Silva for their extensive and constructive evaluations of this article. Thanks are also extended to Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier for the insightful comments that they have provided at various stages of this project.

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