Suchergebnisse

Geographic, political, social, and economic problems.

Americans have long been ignorant of Mexico. For years the U.S. public has tended to view our southern neighbor as a sunlit collage of glitzy tourist havens and sleepy retirement communities. We have seen Mexico not as an emerging middle-range power but as a playground—a land of never-ending mananas and fun-loving mariachis. The stereotype has its darker side as well. Concern over debts and narcotics has aroused U.S. fears that Mexico has fallen prey to chaos and corruption. Mexico's people have thus been reduced to a hodgepodge of dozing peasants, fawning tourist guides, and scheming politicians. Our ignorance is pervasive, profound, and dangerous.

That does the future hold for U.S.-Mexican relations? Optimistic assessments usually point to the high degree of interpenetration between the two societies, the recent history of intergovernmental cooperation, and the commonality of basic interests. Developments in one country have significant impact on the other, a process that now works both ways: the 1982 economic crisis in Mexico created serious difficulties for retailers on the U.S. side of the border, Mexico's subsequent cutbacks in imports prompted the loss of 200,000 jobs in the U.S., and Mexico's struggles with its international debt have crucial implications for banks in the U.S. Each country needs the other, and this kind of "interdependence" creates mutuality of purpose. According to this logic, the rational pursuit of national goals will build and fortify harmonious bilateral relations.

One of the most pervasive phenomena in the modern political world is authoritarianism—regimes characterized by "limited pluralism," identifiably and analytically distinct from democratic or totalitarian types of rule. Well over a third of the contemporary nation-states, mostly in the developing regions, fall into the authoritarian category—and this fact alone would seem to call for intensive research. Nevertheless, despite the obvious importance of the problem, we know relatively little about the origins, dynamics, and stability (or instability) of such regimes. There is a particularly urgent need for empirical research to test, refine, and amplify hypotheses that now exist.