ABSTRACT: The Dynamics of Domination in Mexico, 1934-1990
Viviane Brachet-Marquez, El Colegio de M‚xico.
The paper takes a long historical view of the emergence of social reform in Mexico since the 1910 Revolution. Social reform results from periodic political crises in which contestatory groups threaten the stability of the postrevolutionary state, increasi
ng pressures on its elites to strengthen its popular social base. To analyze these episodes, a central heuristic tool -- the pact of domination-- is offered, and a number of episodes of social confrontations picturing labor alternatively as an ally agains
t contestatory forces, and as a source of contestation in itself, are presented. This concept is an analytical construct designating the process whereby the set of rules (written or unwritten) specifying "who gets what" at any one time within a national t
erritory are enforced and transformed. This notion, drawn from an early discussion by Cardoso on the processes of transformation of structures of domination, indicates simultaneously the power wielded by the state over dominated classes and the institutio
nal or extra-institutional means the latter have at their disposal to modify the terms of their domination. Social reform, therefore, rather than be regarded as a top down process, as in most of the literature, is analyzed as an interactive process betwee
n state elites and selected organized groups in society.
Three episodes of conflicts, leading to state destabilization, and in turn to social reform, are selected from a larger study1: the coups attempted in the early 1930s against the government which propelled organized labor to a privileged position in the p
arty; the threat to the regime of the 1940 opposition coalition which lead to the creation of social security for workers, the rebirth of labor independence in the 1950s which led to the profit sharing decision, and the 1988 electoral challenge to the off
icial party which led to the Pronasol antipoverty policy package.
The power of labor and other popular groups that joined workers during these episodes is described as alternatively defensive and offensive. Defensive power is rewarded by the state by enlarging the capacity of labor to make demands autonomously, while of
fensive power is met by a combination of social reform and institutional restrictions on future possibilities of similar challenges, In either case, a change in the pact of domination is witnessed, whereby labor rank and file receive partial satisfaction
of their wage and social policy demands. Such reforms, therefore, are not to be understood as gestures of state paternalism toward loyal union members, but as strategic responses to the threat of generalized insurgency. These cycles of pressures from belo
w and responses from above are seen as a basic mechanism of political change within the one-party system.
Nevertheless, the analysis notes that such cycles cannot endlessly repeat themselves, and that presently, the cast of players, as much as their capacity for mutual readjustment appear exhausted. The study concludes, nevertheless, that this analytical fram
ework remains valid to study current negotiations over democratization, arguing that the force behind this move is the threat of ungovernability created by a new form of dissidence from below that forcefully demands political reform and redress.
Endnotes
1 Viviane Brachet-Marquez, The Dynamics of Domination: state, class and social reform in Mexico (1910-1990). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994.