Presidential Leadership and Decision-Making in Policy Reforms: The First 150 Days of Vicente Fox

Abstract

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Mexico, the twelfth-largest economy in the world and the second-largest trading partner of the US, finds itself undergoing profound transformations. After more than seven decades with a hegemonic party exercising presidential power, the country is now immersed in a full-fledged democratic process, after a ‘silk transition’.

Politically, there has been a fundamental transformation in the scope of presidential rule and the relationship between the president and Congress. Whereas the legislative branch was subordinate to the executive for over half a century, Mexico’s new democracy has ushered in a Congress that is more powerful and independent, and the president now needs to lobby and negotiate with it. In this context, the ability to pass reform measures requires not only expertise in technical design or instrumental consistency but, foremost, skillfultactical management in the political arena.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of Mexico’s evolution toward electoral democracy and to analyze President Fox’s leadership and the decision-making process he employed in his efforts to attain two major policy reforms in his first 150 days as president: the tax reform and the Indigenous bill. This paper applies a conceptual framework based on the life-cycle of reform policies (decision-making chains), in order to analyze Fox’s attempt to accomplish these reforms in the context of the changing relationship between the legislative and executive branches.

The significance of these reforms at the outset of Fox’s administration cannot be understated, as they weigh heavily on the administration’s capacity to tackle the remaining items on its reform agenda: labor regulations, energy policy, national education, improvement of the judicial system, and constitutional reform. Against the backdrop of the new political landscape, Mexico has a tremendous opportunity to develop in the new century if it consolidates the advances in its democratic development. After its smooth transition to electoral democracy, the country is making tremendous efforts to consolidate its position as an emerging democracy. As it struggles to move forward, it is important that the world community knows about these efforts and continues to support them.