An empirical view of the political groups in Mexico: the camarillas

Abstract

This paper has several aims The first is to give an empirical overview of the shape of the camarillas or political groups in the Mexican political system. The second is to explain the role of the individual within them. As is apparent from the bibliography, the bulk of this information comes from interviews with public officials working within the government, political columnists and academics, as well as information gleaned from newspapers. The type of chisme politico or political gossip is important for grounding the theoretical ideas presented in my doctoral thesis, as well as for discovering new questions. One important point which is not studied in this paper is the role of the camarillas in the succession process.