Development and democrcacy

Abstract

This study analyses some of the challenges facing democracy in Mexico, basedon the neoliberal form of accumulation imposed on the country in recentyears. The effects of this imposition can be seen in an economy with growthrates lower than the needs of an increasing population of working age. Itis an economy lacking the structural capacity to generate employment, withabruptandsteadydeclinesinrealwages,increasinglyprecariousemployment,increasing social inequality and economic exclusion, increasing informality,and increased migration as a survival strategy alongside of the growth of anillegal economy and social violence.Under these kinds of conditions, a set of social uncertainties and conflictshas been generated that have restricted the broad and equal participation ofcitizensinpublicaffairs,underminedtheautonomousformsof collectiveorga-nization,andrestrictedtheruleof law.Thetypeof relationshipsthathavebeenestablished between the state and society have become clientelistic, vertical,and increasingly violent relations that the society reproduces and manifestsback to the state.The crisis of legitimacy that pervades established parties andthe main democratic institutions demonstrates a clear distancing with a polit-icalregimethatincreasinglygovernsbehindthebacksof thecitizens.Alltheseelements allow us to reflect, in a broader sense, on the limits imposed upondemocracy by underdevelopment, generating a set of inequalities and socialconflicts that limit it and make it unfeasible.