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Thickening Civil Society: Explaining the Development of Associational Life in Mexico

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13510340701846616

1743-890X

Daniel M. Sabet,

Social Capital and Networks

Abstract Scholarship has demonstrated the important role that associational life has played in democratic transitions, democratic consolidation, and making democracy work. Unfortunately, however, many countries that have recently completed the transition to democracy lack a strong history of autonomous associations. Given their importance, this research seeks to understand how nonprofit organizations emerge in current-day Mexico, a recent transition country with a traditionally weak associational life, historically controlled by the state. Through a comparison of four Mexican cities this research finds that a transition from one-party rule to competitive elections was necessary to break the incentives for clientelism. Even following the transition, however, the persistence of informal rules from the old regime operating in both government and society restricts the opportunities available to potential 'public entrepreneurs'. As a result, such entrepreneurs are highly dependent on already existing social infrastructure to obtain necessary human, organizational, and financial resources. Keywords: civil societyassociationnonprofitMexicoinformal rulessocial infrastructure Acknowledgements This research was made possible by a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellowship. The author would like to thank Elinor Ostrom, Kirsten Grønbjerg, Kenneth Bickers, Amber Seligson, and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. He also thanks the numerous members of the border community who participated in the study, and expresses his respect for the many public entrepreneurs that he encountered while conducting the research. Notes 1. Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996); John K. Glenn III, Framing Democracy: Civil Society and Civic Movements in Eastern Europe (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001); Michael Bernhard, 'Civil Society and Democratic Transition in East Central Europe', Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 108, No. 2 (1993), pp. 207–326; Alberto Olvera Rivera, Movimientos Sociales Prodemocraticos, Democratizacion y Esfera Publica en Mexico: El Caso de Alianza Civica, Sociedad Civil y Gobernabilidad en Mexico (Mexico: Universidad Veracruzana, 2001). 2. Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993); Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000); Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. G. Lawrence, ed. J. P. Mayor (New York: Harper Perennial); Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963). 3. Charles Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1978), p. 98. 4. Alberto Olvera Rivera, 'Civil Society in Mexico at Century's End', in K. J. Middlebrook (ed.), Dilemmas of Political Change in Mexico (London: Institute of Latin American Studies and Center for US–Mexican Studies, 2004), pp. 403–39; Gustavo Verduzco, Organizaciones no Lucrativas: Visión de su Trayectoria en México (México DF: El Colegio de México and Centro Mexicano para la Filantropía, 2003); Maria Lorena Cook, Kevin J. Middlebrook, and Juan Molinar Horcasitas. 'The Politics of Economic Restructuring in Mexico: Actors, Sequencing, and Coalition Change', in M. L. Cook, K. J. Middlebrook, and J. Molinar Horcasitas (eds), The Politics of Economic Restructuring: State-Society Relations and Regime Change in Mexico (La Jolla, CA: The Center for US–Mexican Studies, 1994), pp. 3–54; Luis Hernandez and Jonathan Fox, 'Mexico's Difficult Democracy: Grassroots Movements, NGOs and Local Government', in C. A. Reilly (ed.), New Paths to Democratic Development in Latin America: The Rise of NGO-Municipal Collaboration (Boulder, CO: L. Rienner Press, 1995), pp. 179–210; Judith A. Teichman, Policymaking in Mexico: From Boom to Crisis, (Boston, MA: Allen and Unwin, 1988); There is a potential endogeneity problem in these findings. It is possible that democracy in Mexico was weak because of a lack of pre-existing associational life. However, Forment's exhaustive study of associational life in 19th century Mexico provides evidence to the contrary. Carlos Forment, Democracy in Latin America, 1760–1900: Volume 1, Civic Selfhood and Public Life in Mexico and Peru (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003). 5. Verduzco (note 4); Hernadez and Fox (note 4); Kerianne Piester, 'NGOs and the Changing Structure of Mexican Politics', in L. Randall (ed.), Changing Structure of Mexico: Political, Social, and Economic Prospects (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1995), pp. 253–62; T. R. Fehrenbach, Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico (New York: Da Capo Press); Howard J. Wiarda, 'Toward a Framework for the Study of Political Change in the Iberic-Latin World: The Corporative Model', World Politics, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1975), pp. 206–35. 6. Octavio Paz, El Ogro Filantropico: Historia y Politica (1971–1978) (Mexico: Joaquin Mortiz, 1979). 7. Verduzco (note 4). 8. Consuelo Castro Salinas, 'México', in J. L. Piñar Mañas and R. Sánchez Rivera (eds), El Tercer Sector Iberoamericano: Fundaciones, Asociaciones, y ONG's (Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 2001), pp. 615–5; Verduzco (note 4). 9. Emilio Carillo Gamboa, 'Mexico,' in L. M. Salamon (ed.), The International Guide to Nonprofit Law (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1994), pp. 216–30. 10. Gustavo Verduzco, Regina List, and Lester M. Salamon, 'Mexico', in Salamon (note 9); H. K. Anheir, R. List, S. Toepler, S. W. Sokolowski and Associates (eds), Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector, (Baltimore, MD: Center for Civil Society Studies, 1999), pp. 429–44. 11. Douglass North, Insitutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 12. Centro Mexicano para la Filantropía, 'Understanding Mexican Philanthropy', in L. Randall (ed.), Changing Structure of Mexico: Political, Social and Economic Prospects (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 183–93. 13. Secretaría de Gobernación, Encuesta nacional sobre cultura política y prácticas ciudadanas: Resumen de resultados (Mexico City: Secretaría de Gobernación, 2003). 14. Moreno, Alejandro, 'Corruption and Democracy: A Cultural Assessment', Comparative Sociology, Vol. 1, No. 3–4 (2002), pp. 495–507. 15. Proyecto sobre filantropía y sociedad civil, Encuesta nacional sobre filantropía y sociedad civil (Mexico DF: Instituto Tecnológico Autónoma de México, 2005). Available from http://www.filantropia.itam.mx/docs/ENAFI_2005.pdf. 16. Tilly (note 3). 17. Kirsten Grønbjerg and Laurie Paarlberg, 'Community Variations in the Size and Scope of the Nonprofit Sector: Theory and Preliminary Findings', Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2001) pp. 684–706; A. Ben-Ner and T. Van Hoomissen, 'An Empirical Investigation of the Joint Determination of the Size of the For-Profit, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sectors', Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Vol. 63 (1992), pp. 391–413; John Joseph Corbin, 'A Study of Factors Influencing the Growth of Nonprofits in Social Services', Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 3 (1999), pp. 296–314. 18. Melissa Middleton, 'Nonprofit Boards of Directors: Beyond the Governance Function', in W.W. Powell (ed.), The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987), pp. 141–53; Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald R. Salancik, The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1978); Brian O'Connell, 'Civil Society: Definitions and Descriptions', Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2000), pp. 471–78. 19. Castro Salinas (note 8); Verduzco (note 4); Michael Layton, 'Funding Sources for Civil Society in Mexico: Constructing a Matrix of Funders and Organizational Typology' (unpublished). 20. Verduzco, List, and Salamon (note 10). 21. Aldon Morris, 'Black Southern Student Sit-In Movement: An Analysis of Internal Organization', American Sociological Review, Vol. 46, No. 6 (1981), p. 746. 22. Verduzco's (note 4) finding might be surprising to some. As an anonymous reviewer observed, in Mexico 'the Church excels at the co-option of social movements'. Despite the Catholic Church's hierarchical structure, it is of course a diverse organization. Within the hierarchy itself, the reforms of Vatican II gave individual bishops greater authority, increasing geographical variation in Church responses to citizen initiatives. In addition, religious orders such as the Jesuits, Marianists, and Salesians further increase the diversity within the Church structure and have been essential supporters of the nonprofit sector's development. 23. Cities also differ in size of population. For example, Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez have over 1.3 million residents while Nogales has just under 200,000. As will be discussed, this study attempts to control for population through the creation of a dependent variable entitled 'associational life presence'. It is not so much population per se that affects the development of civil society organizations, but the presence of social infrastructure. 24. Following the primary research period, electoral conditions changed in Tijuana and Nogales. In 2005, the PRI retook Tijuana after 15 years of PAN administrations. In Nogales, a PAN candidate for municipal president finally won in 2006. 25. The organizations that form the basis of this study were identified through a number of sources including a border-wide internet database of organizations involved in the environmental issues, Environmental Education Exchange, Border Environmental Education Resource Guide (Tucson, AZ: Environmental Education Exchange, 2000); directories compiled by local foundations in Tijuana, International Community Foundation, Survey of Baja California Nonprofit Organizations (San Diego, CA: International Community Foundation, 2003); Nogales, Fundación del Empresariado Sonorense A.C., FESAC – Nogales Directorio de las Organizaciones de la Sociedad 2003–2004 (Nogales, Mexico: Fundación del Empresariado Sonorense A.C., 2003); and Ciudad Juarez, Fundación del Empresariado Chihuahuense A.C., Directorio de las Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil de Chihuahua (Chihuahua, Mexico: Fundación del Empresariado Chihuahuense A.C., 2000); and a municipal directory of organizations in Tijuana, Desarrollo Social Municipal, Directorio de organismos de la sociedad civil (Tijuana, Mexico: H. Ayuntamiento de Tijuana, 2003). Furthermore, during interviews with representatives of the identified organizations, respondents were asked about their network ties. By identifying each organization's network, it was possible to identify additional organizations not listed in the directories. It should, however, be mentioned that this study does not include a systematic selection of neighbourhood associations. Each of the study sites literally has hundreds of neighbourhood organizations that have traditionally served as mobilizing agents for political parties. 26. Enrique Garza and José Luis Pariente Fregosa, 'La Organización Estatal y Municipal', in M. A. Navarro and J. L. Pariente (eds), Tamaulipas y los Retos del Desarrollo (Ciudad Victoria, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, 2000); Octavio Herrera, Breve historia de Tamaulipas (Mexico DF: El Colegio de México, 1999). 27. Herrera (note 26). 28. José Luis López González, Sinopsis del movimiento obrero en Nuevo Laredo: FTNL-CTM (Nuevo Laredo, México: Talleres del RO-AL Impresores, 1998), p. 286. 29. El Diario, 'Primero Líder Sindical: Ahora Prospero Empresario', El Diario (Nuevo Laredo, Mexico), 24 February 1984. 30. Fernando Bejarano, 'Mexico–US Environmental Partnerships', in J. Fox and D. Brooks (eds), Cross Border Dialogues: US–Mexico Social Movement Networking (La Jolla, CA: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, 2002), pp. 113–32. 31. Victor Gabriel Muro González, Iglesia y Movimientos Sociales en México, 1972–1987. Los Casos de Ciudad Juárez y el Istmo de Tehuantepec (México DF, México: Red Nacional de Investigación Urbana and El Colegio de Michoacán, 1994); Alberto Aziz, 'Electoral Practices and Democracy in Chihuahua', in A. Alvarado (ed.), Electoral Patterns and Perspectives in Mexico (San Diego, CA: Center for US–Mexican Studies, 1987); Vikram Chand, Mexico's Political Awakening (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000). 32. Castro Salinas (note 8). CEMEFI. Verduzco (note 4); Layton (note 19). 33. Bejarano (note 30); Mary E. Kelly, 'Cross-Border Work on the Environment: Evolution, Successes, Problems, and Future Outlook', in D. Brooks and J. Fox (eds), Cross-Border Dialogues: US–Mexico Social Movement Networking (La Jolla, CA: Center for US–Mexican Studies, 2002), pp. 133–45. Richard Kiy, Julieta Mendez, Kenn Morris, Javier H. Valdés, and Rafael Valdez Mingramm, Corporate Giving Trends in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region (San Diego, CA: US–Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership, 2005); Carol Zabin, 'Nongovernmental Organizations in Mexico's Northern Border', Journal of Borderlands Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1997), pp. 41–67. 34. Oscar Núñez González, Innovaciones democratico culturales del movimiento urbano popular: ¿Hacia nuevas culturas locales? (Mexico DF: Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, 1990). 35. Muro González (note 31). 36. Kellee James, How CSR and an Entrepreneurial Business Culture Go Hand-in-Hand, (Inter-American Foundation, 2002) Available from www.iaf.gov/grants/downloads/fechac_eng.pdf.pdf. 37. Information is provided on the organization's website at http://www.fechac.org/esp/qs_historia.php. 38. David Winder, Innovations in Strategic Philanthropy - Comparative Lessons from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Mexico (New York: The Synergos Institute, 2004). While FECHAC is unique, it is not alone. The group inspired the creation of a business foundation in neighbouring Sonora (FESAC) in 1997. And Baja California's first foundation, the Fundación Internacional de la Comunidad (International Community Foundation – FIC) was established in 2000. Additional informationNotes on contributorsDaniel SabetDaniel Sabet is a Visiting Professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.