Mexican political elite

Post date: Dec 02, 2011 5:2:44 PM

Overview

Network Dataset

The dataset name is Mexican, and includes the following:

• • Mexican_power.net: 35 vertices (Mexican presidents and close collaborators), 117 edges (political, kinship, friendship, or business ties), no arcs, no loops, no line values.

  • Mexican_military.clu: a classification of the (35) politicians according to their professional background (1 - military in class, 2 - civilians).

  • Mexican_year.clu: the first year (minus 1900) in which the actor occupied a significant governmental position.

  • Mexican_power.paj: Pajek project file containing all three data sets described above.

Background

In Mexico, political power has been in the hands of a relatively small set of people who are connected by business relations, family ties, friendship, and membership of political institutions throughout most of the 20th century. A striking case in point is the succession of presidents, especially the nomination of the candidates for the presidential election. Since 1929, each new president was a secretary in the previous cabinet, which means that he worked closely together with the previous president. Moreover, the candidates always entertained close ties with former presidents and their closest collaborators. In this way, a political elite has maintained control over the country.

The network contains the core of this political elite: the presidents and their closest collaborators. In this network, edges represent significant political, kinship, friendship, or business ties.

Notwithstanding the fact that one political party (the Partido Revolucionario Institucional) won all elections in the period under consideration, two (or more) groups within this party have been competing for power. The main opposition seems to be situated between civilians and members of the military. After the revolution, the political elite was dominated by the military but gradually the civilians have assumed power.

References

• • J. Gil-Mendieta and S. Schmidt, 'The political network in Mexico' (in: Social Networks 18 (1996), 4: 355-381).

  • W. de Nooy, A. Mrvar, & V. Batagelj, Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), Chapter 12.

History

• • Original author: J. Gil-Mendieta (Instituto de lnvestigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autõnoma de México, (IIMAS-UNAM), Ap. Postal 20-763, Mexico, D.F. CP 01000, Mexico ; [email protected]) and S. Schmidt (Center for Inter American and Border Studies, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA ; [email protected]).

  • Data compiled into Pajek data files by W. de Nooy, 2001.