Dictablanda

Dictablanda

Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico, 1938–1968

  • Author: Gillingham, Paul; Smith, Benjamin T.
  • Publisher: Duke University Press
  • Serie: American Encounters/Global Interactions
  • ISBN: 9780822356318
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780822376835
  • Place of publication:  Durham , United States
  • Year of digital publication: 2014
  • Month: April
  • Pages: 464
  • DDC: 972.08/2
  • Language: English
In 1910 Mexicans rebelled against an imperfect dictatorship; after 1940 they ended up with what some called the perfect dictatorship. A single party ruled Mexico for over seventy years, holding elections and talking about revolution while overseeing one of the world's most inequitable economies. The contributors to this groundbreaking collection revise earlier interpretations, arguing that state power was not based exclusively on hegemony, corporatism, or violence. Force was real, but it was also exercised by the ruled. It went hand-in-hand with consent, produced by resource regulation, political pragmatism, local autonomies and a popular veto. The result was a dictablanda: a soft authoritarian regime.

This deliberately heterodox volume brings together social historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists to offer a radical new understanding of the emergence and persistence of the modern Mexican state. It also proposes bold, multidisciplinary approaches to critical problems in contemporary politics. With its blend of contested elections, authoritarianism, and resistance, Mexico foreshadowed the hybrid regimes that have spread across much of the globe. Dictablanda suggests how they may endure.

Contributors
. Roberto Blancarte, Christopher R. Boyer, Guillermo de la Peña, María Teresa Fernández Aceves, Paul Gillingham, Rogelio Hernández Rodríguez, Alan Knight, Gladys McCormick, Tanalís Padilla, Wil G. Pansters, Andrew Paxman, Jaime Pensado, Pablo Piccato, Thomas Rath, Jeffrey W. Rubin, Benjamin T. Smith, Michael Snodgrass

  • Contents
  • Preface - Paul Gillingham
  • Acknowledgments
  • Glossary of Institutions and Acronyms
  • Introduction: The Paradoxes of Revolution - Paul Gillingham and Benjamin T. Smith
  • High and Low Politics
    • Chapter 1. The End of the Mexican Revolution? : From Cárdenas to Avila Camacho, 1937– 1941 - Alan Knight
    • Chapter 2. Intransigence, Anticommunism, and Reconciliation: Church/State Relations in Transition - Roberto Blancarte
    • Chapter 3. Camouflaging the State: The Army and the Limits of Hegemony in PRIísta Mexico, 1940–1960 - Thomas Rath
    • Chapter 4. Strongmen and State Weakness - Rogelio Hernández Rodríguez
    • Chapter 5. Tropical Passion in the Desert: Gonzalo N. Santos and Local Elections in Northern San Luis Potosí, 1943– 1958 - Wil G. Pansters
    • Chapter 6. “We Don’t Have Arms, but We Do Have Balls”: Fraud, Violence, and Popular Agency in Elections - Paul Gillingham
  • Work and Resource Regulation
    • Chapter 7. The Golden Age of Charrismo: Workers, Braceros, and the Political Machinery of Postrevolutionary Mexico - Michael Snodgrass
    • Chapter 8. The Forgotten Jaramillo: Building a Social Base of Support for Authoritarianism in Rural Mexico - Gladys McCormick
    • Chapter 9. Community, Crony Capitalism, and Fortress Conservation in Mexican Forests - Christopher R. Boyer
    • Chapter 10. Advocate or Cacica? Guadalupe Urzúa Flores: Modernizer and Peasant Political Leader in Jalisco - María Teresa Fernández Aceves
    • Chapter 11. Building a State on the Cheap: Taxation, Social Movements, and Politics - Benjamin T. Smith
  • Culture and Ideology
    • Chapter 12. The End of Revolutionary Anthropology? : Notes on Indigenismo - Guillermo de la Peña
    • Chapter 13. Cooling to Cinema and Warming to Television: State Mass Media Policy, 1940–1964 - Andrew Paxman
    • Chapter 14. Pistoleros, Ley Fuga, and Uncertainty in Public Debates about Murder in Twentieth-Century Mexico - Pablo Piccato
    • Chapter 15. Rural Education, Politial Radicalism, and Normalista Identity in Mexico after 1940 - Tanalís Padilla
    • Chapter 16. The Rise of a “National Student Problem” in 1956 - Jaime M. Pensado
    • Final Comments: Contextualizing the Regime: What 1938–1968 Tells Us about Mexico, Power, and Latin America’s Twentieth Century - Jeffrey W. Rubin
  • Select Bibliography
  • Contributors
  • Index

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