The cancellation of Plan B
Diego Martin Velazquez Caballero
The conflict between the neoliberal faction that is represented in the PRIANRD polypartisan pragmatic alliance and the political project of the Fourth Transformation, has taken an extreme difference in regard to the dispute over the INE. While the neoliberals bet on maintaining the electoral structure that bogs down the Mexican political transition in a delegative democracy, Lopezobradorismo gains in popular sympathy and confirms before society the hypothesis of institutional autonomy as a reference of the factual powers. The cancellation of Plan B does not contribute to weakening President López Obrador; Quite the contrary, in front of the bulk of the population he is transformed into a republican and nationalist Caesar who could count -if the polarizing spirit continues- with the social support to promote a reform that removes the hindrances of the old Mexican regime.
Delegative democracies lock the countries that maintain them in vicious circles. According to Guillermo O'Donnell, a sultanist government like that of Rafael Moreno Valle in Puebla and a progressive democrat like that of José Mújica fit into this context. The question is that the quality indicators of democracy, human development, economic growth, competitiveness, human rights and, above all, accountability; they are always on the decline, that is, failed.
Does defending the INE mean protecting Delegative Democracy? Of course. The trajectory of the Federal Electoral Institute and later of the INE, are accomplices and responsible for the delegative democracy that has made the interregnum between the old and the old regime in the country eternal. Critics of Morenista populism do not want to understand that they are the cause of radicalized social movements that destabilize the Mexican political system due to the meager results of neoliberal governance.
The exponential growth of vulnerability and the precariat in Mexico explains the arrival of the Fourth Transformation. Why does the PRIANRD defend a senile institution like the INE that no longer adjusts to the democratic challenges that Mexico faces in a post-covid world? Does the PRIANRD hope that the cycle of delegative democracy will last as long as the hegemonic dominance of the old Official Party? It seems that it is so.
Luis Carlos Ugalde has been one of the media references to observe the process that the debate regarding the INE has followed. The joke is only told, they say out there. But it is worrying that in addition to using the most retrograde forms, the defenders of the INE are also interested in polarizing as much as possible. They say they don't want civil war, are they sure?