Negotiation and deliberation in Mexico's democratization process : six cases of legal reform

This dissertation identifies political practices that increase negotiation effectiveness and democratic legitimacy simultaneously, as key enabling factors for democratization from within a hybrid regime. This finding runs against the Habermasian idea that success-oriented negotiations run counter to the logic of reason-based deliberations that are necessary to produce democratic legitimacy. I present six cases of political negotiation and deliberation that led to major democratic reforms in Mexico, during the period 2006-2009, and offer multiple examples of how negotiation effectiveness and democratic legitimacy reinforced each other or, as predicted by Habermas, entered in tension. Finally, in a comparative analysis of overall levels of democratic legitimacy and negotiation effectiveness across all cases, I find a positive relationship between these two dimensions and trace it to the use of a set of complementary political practices that further both dimensions and, together, may offset the tensions that do emerge when some of the practices are used in isolation. I conclude that reform champions in Mexico need to engage in action that is both strategic and communicative in order to move beyond hybridism into full democracy.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Hernandez, Mara I. (Mara Isabel Hernandez Estrada)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas A. Kochan.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/83768

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/83768