| This study examines the literature dealing with Mexican public policymaking and develops theoretical propositions about its nature and operation from conclusions drawn from the literature reviewed. A close examination of that literature yielded two different, but vague models of Mexican policymaking: (1) closed presidential policymaking and (2) open presidential policymaking. These two models are tested by identifying the regime's policymaking structures and by explaining the manner in which they operated to produce oil policy in two presidential administrations. To attain these goals, the oil policymaking process was divided into several stages. The policy roles played by different actors in the various stages of policymaking were analyzed. The process they engaged in, to produce oil policy was also examined. Data to perform this analysis and evaluation were derived from: (a) interviews with Mexican officials, ranging from cabinet level to middle level government officials directly involved with the oil policy decisions examined in this study; (b) Mexican and United States government documents dealing with Mexican oil and economic policies; (c) Mexican government news magazines largely aimed at intra-governmental circulation; (d) Mexican and United States general newspapers, and specialized oil industry newspapers and journals; and (e) scholarly studies of Mexico's oil policy of the period analyzed: 1970-1982. The findings of this investigation lend strong support to the "open presidential policymaking" model. The most salient features of this model are: (1) the president and different members of the Mexican federal bureaucracy share policymaking functions, power, and influence; (2) policymakers engage in a political process of persuasion, coalition building, information functions, power, and influence; (2) policymakers engage in a political process of persuasion, coalition building, information management, negotiation, and other political techniques to produce government decisions and actions; (3) the president's two most frequently played roles in oil policymaking are those of agenda-setter and authorizer; (4) bureaucrats ranging from middle level administrators to secretaries of state are generally the government's formulators of policy and its advocates; and (5) the policymaking process is open to nongovernment actors, under certain circumstances. Given the techniques policymakers employed to produce policy, and the manner they interacted in the course of policymaking, Mexico's oil policy emerged from a bureaucratic politics process. |
