The Politics of Civil-military Relations in Mexico

Since the late 19th Century, the military in Mexico has been an important instrument of the executive branch of government to maintain political stability. Despite the Mexican Revolution in the first quarter of the 20th Century and the subsequent process of democratization after 1988, this basic characteristic has not been broken. This is definitely a distinctive feature within Latin America, where democratization has rarely been accompanied by an increasing role of the armed forces on internal affairs. By using deductive reasoning and historical narrative, Dr. Lopez argues that the rules governing the system of civil-military relations in Mexico are counterintuitive with the idea of democratic consolidation. He also suggests that the current system of civilian control has become even more vulnerable due to the capacity of the military to resist and even reverse civilian initiatives to improve supervision over their expanding roles.