This book provides the first detailed examination of the practice of policy analysis in Mexico. It studies how public institutions and other non-state actors gather and review information and ponder options in the process of making (or trying to influence) policy decisions. Its chapters also offer explanations that are helpful for understanding how and why policy analysis activities vary across settings, and why this intellectual activity has made significant progress but is still far from being fully established in the country. While these are questions that have great theoretical and practical relevance, they have remained rather under-researched until now.

The book follows a similar structure to that of other volumes in the International Library of Policy Analysis. It thus seeks the double objective of telling the intellectual story of policy analysis in Mexico, as well as of giving a detailed account of policy analysis as a practical endeavor. Moreover, the book describes how policy analysis takes place in a variety of state institutions and a number of non-state organizations that are permanently and directly involved in public affairs. The comprehensive view that results from this effort should thus be of interest to those who are keen to learn more about the Mexican case, and to those who favor comparative policy studies but cannot always access relevant information on developing nations.

The volume has been produced by a group of scholars who are well-known experts in their respective fields. Authors were asked to survey their areas of expertise from a policy analysis lens broadly understood. As a result, each chapter presents a rich and detailed account that balances the particular features of the various topics with the general focus of the book. While no single definition of “policy analysis” is used by all authors, the chapters are clearly focused on describing and/or trying to explain how and why actors mix together information, evidence, ideas and interests in devising potential policies. At the same time, all chapters show that policy analysis is an intellectual pursuit that can hardly be separated from a series of constraints, particularly those related to the national setting in which it takes place.