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Literature on pre-electoral coalitions underlines political hegemony, erosion and electoral cycles as determinants for the creation of anti-hegemonic coalitions. However, in governor elections, the previous conditions appear without the expected results. What is impeding them? It is argued that the lack of local concurrence, few simultaneous elections and electoral nationalization inhibit the formation of this type of coalitions. In order to test the argument, we selected the State of Mexico as an example of a negative case and compared it transversally and longitudinally resorting to a case study approach. This paper aims to reveal the conditions that systematically inhibit the formation of antihegemonic pre-electoral coalitions. Findings include predominance of officialist coalitions, absence of positions for anti-hegemonic negotiation and greater dependence on national resources. It is concluded that the electoral cycle and the state's political dimension increase the nationalization of the election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze how citizen participation has been implemented by the autonomous public bodies in Mexico. According to the literature on autonomous public bodies, these are privileged spaces for citizen participation given that autonomy occurs outside the political parties and lobbies' sphere. Especially, when he open government mechanisms are being built. Therefore, is this true? Does open government mean a special space for citizen participation? To carry out the research, 13 in-depth interviews were conducted with people who work or worked in some autonomous bodies. The paper is structured in four sections: the first part reviews key concepts that help to lead the research. The second part goes deeper into methodology and some technical specifications of the fieldwork. The third part presents the results. Finally in the fourth section, conclusions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the centrality that the educational reforms of Pacto por México give to the rules of the game --vis a vis teacher behavior--, this paper examines its preexisting institutional design. The starting point was the existing claims that such design created agency problems. Our purpose was to prove the configuration of a specific type of agency problem: organizational moral hazard. We deconstructed normativity with the Institutional Grammar Tool (IGT), proposed by Crawford and Ostrom (1995). IGT allows to systematically identify --if any-- the rules present in policy documents, unveiling the genetic code of policies that configure arenas where individuals display their interactions. We found that the way control management at schools is structured in relation to the application of sanctions to teachers constitutes a moral hazard situation given its assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on gender violence has been conducted since the sixties. The problem has been conceptualized and documented, although not necessarily looked after. Oaxaca stands out as one of the states where women are more likely to be attacked. This paper analyzes gender violence in Ayutla, a Mixe community of Oaxaca. Data were gathered through quantitative and qualitative methods. The main results are: psychological violence is the most common one; numerous cases of incest and ravishment occur; economic violence generally involves men totally abandoning women; local and State authorities exercise institutional violence by neglecting women s charges. The paper analyzes women's discursive strategies to re-signify their rights, and a successful case of rape within marriage which strengthened the struggle for such rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender mainstreaming has become the major tool for governments to promote gender equality since 1995 Beijing Conference. This paper reviews the achievements of GM in Mexican environmental policy through the analysis of two programs operated by SEMARNAT, Equidad de Género, Medio Ambiente y Sustentabilidad program (2002-2006), Hacia la Igualdad de Género y la Sustentabilidad Ambiental program (2007-2012), and Programa Nacional Hídrico (2007-2012). Drawing on this analysis, the paper makes some recommendations to mainstream gender in the design and implementation of the country's water policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the downfall of the authoritarian regime ruling Mexico for more than seven decades, the relationship between politicians, the mass media and public opinion transformed dramatically. This paper addresses such a transformation of political communication by looking at the 1994, 2000 and 2006 presidential campaigns in a comparative perspective. The analysis observes specific changes in the area, such as the displacement of the traditional centers of power which determined the political relations during the authoritarian regime, as well as the breakdown of the corporatist compliances that characterized the media-government relations. Further traits that illustrate contemporary changes in political communication in Mexico are the establishment of a plural spectrum of powerful media whose barons act as powerful pressure groups; and the instability of Mexican electorate, which in turn fuels the prevalence of both independent and 'soft vote' over the 'hard vote'. Finally, the paper concludes that candidate's media and communication strategies during the 2006 presidential campaigns were the most influential factors of the election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empowerment can be defined as women's ability increment to widen their life options and make their own decisions. It can be looked at in three dimensions: personal, close relationships and collective. Several studies have pointed out the uneven advancement in these dimensions and women's greater difficulties to transform the close relationship dimension. This paper analyzes three issues of such dimension: women's possibilities to manage their own income; their ability to negotiate their domestic workload; and their freedom of movement. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 women who compose the Regional Fund of Chontal Women from Tabasco (Fondo Regional de Mujeres Chontales de Tabasco). A family typology was constructed in order to analyze these three issues according to each family's composition and life cycle. Results evidence women's ability to negotiate changes in income management and freedom of movement, but not in the redistribution of their domestic workload. In the concluding section, the paper discusses these findings and comares them to those obtained in similar works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the major transformations in the Mexican party system that occurred during the protracted process of democratic transition; it is divided into three parts. The first part is a brief review of the factors that contributed to the process of political-electoral change. In the second part, we carry out an analysis of changes in a number of dimensions of the Mexican party system, based on aggregate electoral data at national and district levels, as well as on data from public opinion surveys. The third part presents an analysis of the ideological structure of political competitiveness based on data from surveys on the left-right ideological stances of Mexican federal legislators. The paper shows important changes in the structure and behaviour of the Mexican electorate, such as increasing partisan de-alignment, as well as a growing level of competitiveness and fractionalization of the party system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new labor environment is characterized by the insecurity of the workforce; a problem that particularly affects young people. Under this preamble, the objective of the paper is to analyze the working conditions of the working population in the city of Toluca from a gender perspective. Precisely, this is to estimate different levels of insecurity as older age groups, as well as men and women between 14 and 29 years of age. This was accomplished by estimating the rate of job insecurity on data from the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE) of the first quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing works on the Party of Democratic Revolution usually emphasize charismatic leadership or internal groups. Little has been said about why fraudulent elections occur inside the party. This work unpacked the unit of analysis in four observations (1999, 2002, 2005 and 2008) to perform two synchronous comparisons (1999-2005 and 2002- 2008), achieving depth and explanation. If we consider the charismatic leadership or groups as independent variables, we would not be able to predict fraudulent elections, since the influence of the two is only to only shape the formulas in dispute. The paper concludes by arguing that the explanation lies in the similarity of forces and the reduced cost of violating the rules by the competitors; this will provide empirical evidence to show that in the presence of these conditions there can be fraudulent elections (1999 and 2008), whereas in their absence there can be fair elections (2002 and 2005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performativity of social protest renders it vulnerable to omissions or distortions in the media. Violence invariably seduces television and leads to criminalization and repression. This paper will examine the actions of Mexican social movements when faced with media omission. To this end, it will go over specific examples that reveal how major media groups criminalize or distort protests. Similarly, it will analyze alternative communication experiences by interviewing those that actively participate in said processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the preliminary results of an investigation into the political culture and social capital of youths in the State of Hidalgo, Mexico, which we conducted with resources from the Teaching Improvement Program (Mexico). Specifically, we start from the field theory as a theoretical model and discourse analysis as a qualitative research technique we methodologically framed its work. Both aspects can drill beliefs and attitudes of youths from Hidalgo about politics, and why, apparently, they display disinterest. From the results of said disinterest it is not observed but it is the political field which closes for them, as it is inserted into a social monopoly. The stance of these young people is ethical, but does not vindicate for greater political participation, which leaves for the actors the maintenance of the field or the change in the rules of inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of revolutionary nationalism, of mandatory consensuses and of the institutional foundation of modern Mexico, is today a party of control-rooted actions. These activities forced the appearance of new leaderships that without the leading figure of the almighty president, have taken the lead. There has been a do over of order and forced authority redistribution, both inside and out the party. Undoubtedly this is another issue that adds to the multiplication of epicenters and influence platforms wherefrom power is exercised. This way, the paper has the purpose of unveiling some of the fundamental changes of PRI, focusing mainly on: 1) the institutional come-and-go, leading to the strengthening of the party as one of broader openness and transversality; 2) the promotion of local leaders and chief executives as bastions for the decision making of the party; and 3) the tactical practice in the rearrangement of parliamentary seats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special attention in the diversification strategy must be given to the efficient use of the potential of sugar cane with the objective of increasing the value added using chemicals and biotechnologies as complements for sugar production. From cane harvest and processing, it is possible to obtain eight products and byproducts (sucrose, ethanol, trash, bagasse, molasses, filter mud, vinasse, and ashes) and a significant number of production processes could be developed. However, industrial production of byproducts and sugarcane derivatives has not shown a constant development and in Mexican sugar industry there has not been a significant change in the diversification pattern in the past few decades. The objective of this paper is to analyze the trends and patterns of diversification and related development in the Mexican sugar industry based on secondary and primary data. It was also found that the absence of a national model of diversification, lack of knowledge and information were the major constraints towards sugarcane agriculture (crop sector), biofabric (industrial sector) efficient and sustainable production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On this work we propose a study on migration, beginning with the revision of the social condition of these Central American emigrants while passing through Mexico, while the violations to their human rights are exposed. This previous idea is developed under the base that even though, migration is not a recent fact, it is a social phenomenon with several transformations in the national policies, as well as, in the reconfiguration of Mexican society. This is the reason why, before this phenomenon dynamic, we propose a different vision that allows the consolidation of this culture of respect to human rights, as well as, an adjustment of the legal framework in order to achieve the highest effectiveness of the regulation, accepting it not only in the paper, but also as a reality that guarantees the legal framework the well being of individuals above some illegal conducts contrary to their human rights, encouraging a combination of acceptance and tolerance to allow harmonic social coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the adaption of the political parties in the context of the State of Mexico between 1993 and 2006. The political parties as organizations respond to complex interests which are also expressed in diverse forms. In the last years, these political organisms have adapted to the market, leaving their ideologies behind and introducing themselves into the electoral competition, this forces their leaders to make decisions in a context of rational election. The typology they now respond to is that of the professional party, catch-all or cartel, leaving behind the answer to social cleavages or the ideology that once identified the parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to perform a review on the migration phenomenon and its impact on regional development in northwestern Michoacan. The study is based on a comparison of intensity levels of migration, marginalization and human development and evolution in ten years as from 1995. The region Lerma-Chapala has suffered a steady decrease in population as of the last decade of the XX century, which speaks of the importance of this phenomenon. Moreover, while there is a direct relationship between migration and human development a dynamic economy which makes this region less dependent on remittances has not been generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to explain the relevance of implementing a System of Indicators for Electoral Law actions in the Electoral Tribunal of the State of Mexico (ETSM), from the perspective and principles of evaluation by results to generate indicators which are measurable, observable, countable and verifiable, and to comply with the principles of certainty, legality, independence, impartiality and objectivity, stated in the mission of ETSM. The related theoretical-methodological referents on management for results are outlined as tools for decision-making and their impact on their implementation in the legalelectoral filed is related illustrating a study case for ETSM, where elections have become an increased demand for attention from the actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to examine an ethnographic description of a traditional festivity, namely the representation of the 5 de Mayo Battle, in a Mexican community. Such a festivity is an event of a civic nature and takes place every single year in the location of Texcoco, a municipality of the State of Mexico. By considering Victor Turner's proposal along with a French Structuralism approach, the festivity was analyzed as a performance genre of social drama; which permitted the understanding of the event's significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a persistent concern in Mexico on guiding the role that the countryside should play in the future of national development, considering its present difficulties in backwardness and stagnation. A vision of how to move this process is present in the new Law on Sustainable Rural Development (Ley de Desarrollo Rural Sustentable), which suggests an approach to development from the territory as a subject of action and new processes are recognized as rural routes to rebuild the fabric of rural life. However, there is still the need to express this law in an operational policy that actually includes realizable alternatives to reverse the depopulation of the countryside caused by marginalization and massive migration in the face of the need for peasant's survival. In this case, the proposal should lead to its greater possible scope the territorial approach to rural development and operational strategy. Therefore, what we are proposing in this paper is to raise some points that may be strategic in defining a rural policy for the country, from a territorial approach and regional development, taking into account the dimensions of economic and social fragmentation which generate the abandonment of the countryside, but also as a new scale of opportunities that entails the presence of rural activities increasingly diverse and complex which could be translated into the new rural development policy that we endeavor for as a way to reduce social imbalances in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counties and town councils (boroughs) have a direct, immediate and unavoidable responsibility towards the environment. A few years ago, they were not regarded as priority functions of the counties. Today they are not only a basic legal obligation, but a social commitment of the local government to the community. This paper is centered on the responsibilities that the Federal and Local Political Constitutions impose exclusively on boroughs and townships regarding public services. The way those services are delivered have a direct consequence on the local environment. Drinking water, domestic drainage, waste disposal, waste water treatment, hygiene and cleanliness of marketplaces and other services are today's challenges for the municipal authorities; if not attended to in an efficient way they will have a negative direct impact on the quality of life of the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses in the new working experiences that had to be implemented by a group of middle class families in Mexico City. Through these new working activities people were searching for ways to cop with the temporal or definitely loss of emplyments and how to face the lack of economic re sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the weakness of traditional account ability models, different countries have been development new schemas to ensure the efficient and direct intervention of society on government control: Comités de Vigilancia in Bolivia; Veedurias Ciudadanas in Colombia or Contraloría Social in Mexico, etcetera. The success of these programs usually refers to the number of social control commit tees set up. None the less, the aim of this paper is to show, from a qualitative approach, the main characteristics of social control model implemented in the State of Mexico. The focal point is to understand who the actors are, how and where take place, as well as which tools are used on social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show that several characteristics that exist in the theoretical frame work known as New Public Management (NPM), such as: orientation of customer, account ability, information's technology, strategic planning, contracts and decentralization; these are in the strategies that apply the governments of the Republic Mexican's states on their public administrations. Official's documents are analyzed in detail with a methodology for to make indicators that it weigh up NPM in the actions are applied for the studied states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the sociotechnical organization of biotechnological research of maize in Mexico. Breaking with three misunderstandings imposed since a long time to the net notion, having to do with actor's distance, size and number and net's space, in the text we analyze the sociotechnical organization of maize's biotechnology using a methodological net notion that allows us to explain the type of connection that establishes between the participant actors of technical phenomena, al well as their grade of connection (intensity) and their time-relation (stability). The results of the methodological net notion applied in 6 laboratories where biotechnology applied to maize in the country; show that the biotechnology research of Mexican's maize is not affiliated to maize's object. None the less, there are different models of research organization of maize's biotechnology that correspond to particular situations defined by the disposition of social, material and symbolic aspects of research's groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provoke a discussion about the role of education in the promotion of the real learning that will serve people to face the changes required for a future society. It is showed briefly the program for the "Formation of Self regulated Apprentices in Learning Communities ", created by the authors as apart of their research, in the Center for Psychological and Sociological Research of the Ministry of Science. Technology and Environment of Cuba, to provide an answer to this social demand. It shows too theirs experiences in teaching some mexicans professors in the state of Morelos who have now the opportunity to implement in theirs schools the pedagogical model presented in the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper spells out the industrial restructuring process in Morelos, focused on the macroeconomic, new production models and value chains dimensions. I pursuit to find out the influence of these dimensions of the industrial change on the international competitiveness It results that industrial competitive advantages of superior order have been created, which should be considered and stimulated by a regional industrial policy project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses some of the consequences of the changes in the Mexican political system for subnational politics. By presenting the cases of two local elections in the slates of Tabasco and Yucatan, it will be argued that the decentralisation policy, applied by Ernesto Zedillo, brought about a contradiction in the democratisation process at national and local level. It will be shown that this policy empowered local elites that were able to challenge the new democratic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]