Welfare Regime, Neoliberal Transformation, and Social Exclusion in Mexico, 1980–2015

Abstract

We can distinguish two periods in the transformation México’s economy: the first took place after Second World War, when the neoliberal transformation in Mexico occurred after 1950, the “thirty glorious years” of the stabilizing development model (desarrollo estabilizador), a state-centered model that emerged from the Mexican Constitution of 1917. The second period starts in the middle of 80s, when Mexican economy was market-centered, with little influence from the State, known as the neoliberal stage, when the collective actions were diminished, and the State focused more on individual achievements. During the neoliberal stage, the structural adjustment programs and market reforms were introduced with the administration of President Miguel de la Madrid (1983–1988). However, the first agreement with the International Monetary Fund was signed in the late 1970s, Mexican state and society were transformed by the implementation of neoliberal policies starting in the 1980s. In this chapter, we address the question of what are the effects of neoliberal policies on the Mexican welfare regime? The central hypothesis is that during the period 1980–2015 the social development model has been transformed into welfare state model of social exclusion (cepal, 2007; Cordera and Provencio, 2017). Between 2008 to 2014, the incidence of poverty remained practically the same, ranging from 41.2 to 46.2%, lack of access to social security ranging from 64.7 to 58.5% in the same period (coneval, 2011). On the other hand, increased levels of income inequality prevailed in the last three decades, ranging from 0.445 to 0.493 between 1984 and 2014 (Cortes and Vargas, 2017: 49). Overall, we observed no improvements in access to education, health services and labour rights that created a condition of social exclusion, as well as increased inequality. The dream of the neoliberal era for creating further expectations of improvements in the economy have failed. The Mexican welfare state model produced social exclusion (EspingAndersen, 1999), which is considered to be a “capability deprivation” (Sen,