Democratic political culture and the INE
Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero
As in every election, the ways and means in which political actors conduct themselves to monopolize public representation positions are surprising. Processes of usurpation of indigenous and gender identity now abound so that chiefs and oligarchies maintain their power at the expense of the public treasury. Exhibiting the phenomenon is of little use.
Other political and legal analyzes affirm the need for greater bureaucracy to micro-spatially monitor the process. The application of the law is, however, not a valid option in contemporary Mexico.
To obey the law it is necessary to educate in reason and, in weak states like Mexico, due to procedural economy, certain actions that would have a high significant value are abandoned.
Common sense indicates that the INE never had the strength to impose laws and corresponding sanctions. However, the large fines that were imposed on certain occasions and that, however, also ended in waste, also remain for history.
The INE never wanted to promote the effort to apply the draconian system represented by the electoral rules. Not even the national budget would have served to sanction the patrimonialist political leadership. The IFE/INE was complicit in an authoritarian regression that was slowly built. In the end, the imbalance between ideals and means led to succumbing to a form of democratic transition that turned out to be onerous and unproductive. Mexican politics abounds in surrealism and with it an authoritarian populism that has always been a hindrance and atavism is hidden.
Democratic civic culture was an obligation in the development of the IFE/INE, it was never fulfilled. The Electoral Councils sought to be protagonists of the narrative of power and forgot about democratic civility, neutrality and ethics. As referees, they were always biased and subject to political cliques.
Politicians do everything to achieve power and stay there. The electoral process that corresponds to the current six-year term violated all regulations; Strictly speaking, no one should be a candidate and, therefore, all the local horror stories regarding the registration of candidates are peccata minuta.
The reconversion of Morena into the tortilla row pointed out by Weldon and Smith causes the middle class and civil society to lose. The IFE-INE did not and will not comply with the formation of a democratic civic culture.
Impersonating indigenous people, transgender people, women, and even constituencies, is something more than common in the country.
The INE will disappear along with the neoliberal model and we will all once again be colleagues in the sector and party. In the future, the lack of liberal democratic culture in the country will be paid dearly. The middle class and marginalized minorities – such as true indigenous people and non-Mexicans – always lose. It is illogical that the subjects attached to these sectors are referred to as the heroes that the moment requires to safeguard the transition. Liberal democracy has failed miserably in Mexico and the approaching political Darwinism causes orphanhood and absence. The failure of the IFE/INE is followed by the collapse of a legal-political-social approach that developed the electoral system of the last thirty years. Neighborhood and plebeian democracy is what can be seen on the horizon.