1st Edition
The Political Economy of Transnational Power and Production Mexico's Metamorphosis 1982-2022
The Political Economy of Transnational Power and Production: Mexico's Metamorphosis 1982-2022
How and why Mexico’s socioeconomic structure was transformed through plutocratic preferences, US corporate strategies, and ideology—all powering transnational processes of neoliberalization—are issues examined in this comprehensive, carefully documented publication covering four crucial decades of metamorphosis. The causes and consequences of the creation of a new, regional power bloc—the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—are extensively examined.
Readers will benefit from the many important demystifications presented here, chronicling the asymmetric Mexico-US production system. The impacts of the new transnational structure for labor on both sides of the border are matters of centrality. Specialists and general readers alike will find an explicit and accessible account of the powerful forces opening access to and profiting from millions of low-wage workers enabling Mexico to become a strategic source of US imports. Portrayed by mainstream economists and major policy makers as a "win-win" triumph of "free trade" theory, this book documents the opposing reality imposed by NAFTA and the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement on both the US and Mexican working classes. US economists foretold a dramatic narrowing of the income gap—the US would benefit; Mexico would benefit even more. But instead, the yawning gap increased for three decades, bringing devastation for workers while debilitating Mexico’s national industrial base.
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Preface
Chapter 1: The Remaking of Mexico: The State, Economic Elite and US Capital 1982-1992
Chapter 2: From NAFTA to the PAN’s Implosion: Mexico Remade for US TNCs 1992-2012
Chapter 3: Stagnation & Income Dispersion Sink New PRI and Fracture US Labor: 2012-2018
Chapter 4: López Obrador in Power, 2018-2022: A Transformational or Conformational Moment?
Chapter 5: Export-Led Accumulation: Paradoxes of the Leading Auto Sector
Chapter 6: Petroleum: A Strategic Resource for Houston’s TNCs or Mexico?
Chapter 7: Mining and Agriculture: Supporting Pillars of the Transnational Structure
Chapter 8: Some Final Reflections on Dependence and Asymmetry
Index
Biography
James M. Cypher is Emeritus Research Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico and Emeritus Professor of Economics at California State University, Fresno, USA.
Mateo Crossa is Research Professor at the Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, Mexico City, Mexico.
"An original and relevant book on Mexico’s economic history such as this has not appeared for a long time. For anyone interested in better understanding the trajectory of Mexico’s economy this book is highly recommended." — Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, co-author of Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy (Oxford U.P. 2009)
"By following the money, Cypher and Crossa skilfully demonstrate how the neoliberal integrationist project serves to impoverish workers and enable capital on both sides of the Mexico- U.S. border. This book provides a powerful call for a change in economic policy direction." — Paul Bowles, Professor, Departments of Global & International Studies and Economics at University of Northern British Columbia, Price George Canada
