Dictablanda: Politics, Work, and Culture in Mexico, 1938–1968 (American encounters/global interactions)

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 Introduction: the paradoxes of revolution / by Paul Gillingham and Benjamin T. Smith -- The end of the Mexican Revolution? From Cárdenas to Avila Camacho, 1937-1941 / by Alan Knight -- Intransigence, anticommunism, and reconciliation : church/state relations in transition / by Roberto Blancarte -- Camouflaging the state : the army and the limits of hegemony in PRIísta Mexico, 1940-1960 / by Thomas Rath -- Strongmen and state weakness / by Rogelio Hernández Rodríguez -- Tropical passion in the desert : Gonzalo N. Santos and local elections in Northern San Luis Potosí, 1943-1958 / by Wil G. Pansters -- "We don't have arms, but we do have balls" : fraud, violence, and popular agency in elections / by Paul Gillingham -- The Golden Age of charrismo : workers, braceros, and the political machinery of postrevolutionary Mexico / by Michael Snodgrass -- The forgotten Jaramillo : building a social base of support for authoritarianism in rural Mexico / by Gladys McCormick -- Community, crony capitalism, and fortress conservation in Mexican forests / by Christopher R. Boyer -- Advocate or cacica? Guadalupe Urzúa Flores : modernizer and peasant political leader in Jalisco / by María Teresa Fernández Aceves -- Building a state on the cheap : taxation, social movements, and politics / by Benjamin T. Smith -- The end of revolutionary anthropology? : notes on indigenismo / by Guillermo de la Peña -- Cooling to cinema and warming to television : state mass media policy, 1940-1964 / by Andrew Paxman -- Pistoleros, Ley Fuga, and uncertainty in public debates about murder in twentieth-century Mexico / by Pablo Piccato -- Rural education, political radicalism, and normalista identity in Mexico after 1940 / by Tanalís Padilla -- The rise of a "national student problem" in 1956 / by Jaime Pensado -- Final comments: Contextualizing the regime? ": what 1938-1968 tells us about Mexico, power, and Latin America's twentieth century / by Jeffrey W. Rubin 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