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Delinking as resistance to transnationalized corporatism: A study of state society relations in Mexico, 1982-2006

Posted on:2010-05-18Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:The University of Western Ontario (Canada)Candidate:Chapman, Debra DFull Text:PDF
GTID:1446390002981678Subject:Political science
Abstract/Summary:
State-society relations in Mexico have changed over the past thirty years from state corporatism (SC) to 'transnationalized corporatism' (TC). Driving the transition from SC to TC has been the state's adoption of neoliberal political-economic reforms under the tutelage of the International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organization. Situated in a Marxist account of Mexico's capitalist relations of production, this work reports, analyzes and explains the various strategies employed by a purposive sample of non-state actors---unions, opposition political parties, NGOs, election movements, gremial movements and the Zapatista movement---in responding to the new order of TC. Because of its unique 'delinking' response to TC, the Zapatista movement is examined in detail.;Keywords. Mexico, corporatism, transnational, Zapatista movement (EZLN), delinking, neoliberalism, unions, NGOs, reconstituted class analysis, state-society relations.;The dissertation's empirical findings are that although corporatism has declined in scope it has persisted in a transnationalized form; that in response non-state actors have variously adopted a range of strategies including maintaining (modified) relations with the state, forming independent unions, augmenting the scope of their demands, making coalitions, substituting for the state's withdrawal from service provision and seeking autonomy from the state altogether. Theoretically, 'integrative' (corporatist or anti-corporatist) or 'delinking' (non-corporatist) response strategies are distinguished in relation to their accommodation to TC and the social relations of production. The persistence of corporatism as an entrenched feature of Mexican state-society relations undermines the view that Mexico is a pluralist democracy. Finally, the Zapatista delinking strategy is compared with that of Hugo Chavez in relation to US imperialism and the deglobalizing efforts of the Argentinean factory takeover movement.
Keywords/Search Tags:Relations, Corporatism, State, Mexico, Delinking
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