Unions, Corporatism and the Industrial Relations System in Mexico

Abstract

Mexico has been one of the most politically stable countries in Latin American during this century. Mexico’s current State was the product of a long social revolution and class war (1910-1920) in which large landholders were defeated and the modern bourgeoisie began its ascent. Mexico’s socioeconomic model prior to 1980 is commonly referred to as Import Substitution. It was characterized by a strong, authoritarian State, which was the driving force behind the country’s industrialization. The State protected industrialization from any outside competition and provided industrialists with low-cost loans and the advantage of price controls maintained on agricultural products. From an economic viewpoint, this model facilitated the transition from the light industrialization of the 1930s and 1940s to the heavy industry of the 1950s and 1960s. Nevertheless, the following decade brought economic and political turbulence which led to the disintegration of this model and its replacement by the current neoliberal system.