Representation and decision making in the Mexican congress

Abstract

The paper reviews the evolution of the representation system in the Mexican Congress and the general changes that have occurred in the policy-making process within the Mexican political system with the purpose of contributing to the effectiveness versus representativeness debate. The initial claim is that the debate most often mistakes effectiveness in outcome —adequate policy decisions given certain ends— with effectiveness in process, that is, the procedure whereby decisions are reached. Drawing on congressional data for the last fourteen years, it is argued that the expansion of representativeness in the Mexican congress is not at the root of the supposed lack of reforms; that compromise and agreements within congress are more the rule than the exception; and that paralysis and stalemate are not the inevitable fate of divided government. It concludes that alternative explanations for the lack of action regarding many of the structural reforms that many deem necessary should be put forward. Among them, the presence of de facto powers, the lack of executive powers and the low capacities of the Mexican Congress.

Con el fin de contribuir al debate sobre la efectividad versus la representatividad de los gobiernos, en este documento de trabajo se revisa la evolución del sistema de representación en el Congreso mexicano y los consecuentes cambios en el proceso de toma de decisión política. A partir de un conjunto de datos sobre la integración y patrones de comportamiento en el Congreso —particularmente en la Cámara de Diputados— se argumenta que: a) la pluralidad en el Congreso no es la responsable de la supuesta inacción legislativa; b) los grupos parlamentarios han sido capaces de llegar a acuerdos legislativos de relevancia política y no solo sobre leyes de poca importancia (“intrascendentes”); c) no hay bases para sostener la tesis de que los gobiernos divididos tienen como destino inevitable la parálisis o el mantenimiento del estatus quo. A manera de conclusión se exploran vías alternativas tanto para explicar la falta de acuerdos y la inacción legislativa como para promoverlos.