Alliances in 2018. Dictatorial Unity or Democratic Union?
By Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero
https://www.semanarioelreto.com/single-post/2017/08/24/Alianzas-en-2018-%C2%BFUnidad-Autoritaria-o-Uni%C3%B3n-Democr%C3%A1tica
The main obstacles to democratic consolidation in Mexico lie in a traditional political culture and, above all, in the representatives of the post-revolutionary regime. Together, this prolongs the establishment of a National Agreement that culminates the transition and delimits the future of the country. If the Mexican transition to democracy does not end with a National Agreement that defines the country's political-economic-social future, there will be a long and gradual semidemocratization that will not respond with the necessary emergency to national demands; But which can lead us to extreme extremes of violence and danger.
No one can deny certain progress in the country. There are now more instruments to support the reasons and the claims. There is already a strong, vigorous and pluralistic civil society with its own life and economic and political aspirations whose satisfaction is urgent. But there is also a large part of the society that is defenseless, which is impoverished and lacking any civic-democrat culture.
Mexican democracy faces severe risks. The dilemma between governance and participation is not resolved in a positive way. In recent years it has been evident, at the state and federal level, the way in which governments end up building a model of control that becomes antidemocratic. Perhaps partisan partisan participation has been exhausted. It is now necessary to link governments of different levels and ideologies because the social situation has become seriously complicated. The political system must reconstitute the welfare state and address the poverty that has multiplied its pathologies.
Citizenship has been distorted in terms of the market's advance in politics. The public, ethical and moral virtues diminish in the face of a scenario of famine, confrontation and insecurity. International pressure also increases pressure on the political system. Politics has to be rethought.
Donald Trump's rejection of Mexico has been significant because it delimits the image of Mexican democratization. Trump has been a good censor of government policies and the few changes that the country has had despite the alternations. The situation between Mexico and the United States should reorient the lives of parties, government and citizens. It is a great challenge the set of critiques for our country and it is urgent to change not only the image, but the reality of things because they are known to be true.
Mexico's geographical conditions do allow the United States to do something about narcoterrorism and corruption that prevail in the context. It has happened before and it will happen even if we do not like it. Democracies treat other democracies peacefully, and they have the right to defend themselves when they are affected. During the last thirty years, neoliberalism opted for an economic and political modernization that allowed the integration with the United States. That is what has failed: the Mexican neoliberal project. In fact, the situation has been serious since the level reached by the administrations after the alternation of 2000 is that of Failed State, one of the most dangerous protagonists of globalization. It was not possible to dismantle the old system of Hegemonic Party, in fact the PRI DNA has extended to all other political institutes and for that reason the change of political culture has been so serious. In the electoral, partisan, governmental, union, school, journalistic, etc., things seem to involute. The new regime assumed the worst crisis of political discredit and economic disaster, the immense presidential power has not had the necessary capacity to face the seriousness of the problem. Socially, economically and politically, the democratic regime rules with cynicism and failure. Delaying further democratic consolidation can lead to an overload of demands that generate ungovernability, give continuity to the old regime or facilitate a violent solution.
One of the most serious diplomatic moments is lived in the country; Even though Mexico has become accustomed to acts of imperialism. It is important to say that, precisely in the years that characterized Mexican neoliberalism, we opted for a greater integration with North America, the project initiated with Carlos Salinas de Gortari was condensed into an accelerated modernization that sought to form a homogeneous North America. The result has been failure. Samuel Huntington is one of the theorists who has pointed out the conflict with modernity on the part of Mexico. From here we have to watch the reaction of Donald Trump and his government to our country. The situation goes beyond reactionary and xenophobia, implying that the neoliberal technocratic modernizing policies of recent years have been a failure. Society must also evaluate it and try to answer how, then, it wants to relate to the West and modernity.
The Mexican transition followed the path of electoral reforms. Strictly speaking, procedural democracy implies that political actors can compete, win and exit by power under that method. However, the fact that the PRI has not disappeared also implies the survival of the old regime as well as its uses and customs that, in fact, have been transmitted to the other institutes. Probably the Mexican transition is in the path of failed transitions or imperfect democracies. The important thing is to consider the mechanisms to eliminate the strategies of the old regime.
The main obstacle to Mexican democratic consolidation lies in the representatives and survivors of the postrevolutionary regime who, in the face of uncertainty about what might happen to them, use all the means at their disposal (which are many and very powerful) to stop all political change Which insinuates harm to them.
MORENA, the political project that accumulates the main electoral trends, has the responsibility to lead a National Agreement to delimit the political-economic-social future of the country. Manuel Camacho Solis always promoted a democratic center that would show the lesson of Spain and Chile: To achieve a serious and consolidated progress in the economy and politics. Pacing democracy, generating wealth for all and economic justice. A pact of this kind in Mexico is no longer possible. The PRIANRD, in its many expressions, has distorted the idea to develop patrimonialist, cynical and authoritarian politics of always. Camacho Solís himself distorted the falsehood of the Pact for Mexico that promoted the current administration.
The challenge of MORENA is to build a proposal to legitimize itself before Mexican society and the international world. Only through the pact with developed citizens and democracies can the representatives of the old regime be pressured to give up authoritarianism.
The mechanisms to be implemented are urgent if we want to safeguard national sovereignty and democracy. One of the embers for political consolidation is civil society. To rescue the citizen, to include it in the institutions and the decisions of government, can mean the resumption of the country. And, in turn, make other societies treat us as a democracy. Democracy works if citizens want. Hence social organization and pressure become significant. It is not that institutions do not work, or that the party system has more common places than proposals, but the great transformer is the common individual. It should involve society in decision making, make people see that their opinion on governance issues is important, that can really make decisions.
MORENA also needs the international shelter of some democratic institutions and developed countries. The political action of Solidarity in Poland can be a route to follow. The construction of the border wall can even be accepted, as long as the United States intends to destroy and treat as terrorists the corrupt politicians, criminal groups and consortiums that the modernist conservative technocracy has fomented in Mexico.
It is urgent the Unity, the Union, without fissures or divisions, to give way to a country that, without breaking with its history, has the talent necessary to modernize to the rhythm of the times, to lay the solid, solid, consistent bases that Allow to understand and solve the problems of a citizenship that raises unresolved demands and wishes to cancel the inequalities and inequities that are still lacerating.
