The logic of compromise in Mexico : how the countryside was key to the emergence of authoritarianism /

McCormick (Syracuse Univ.) has provided a historical overview of how the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and its party elite monitored political contests and managed clientelistic relationships and popular mobilization in two large-scale sugar cooperatives in the states of Morelos and Puebla. She uses primary sources and historical archives, and she intertwines historical and political events with the story of three brothers from the region. Each brother had a different relationship with the political system and the sugar cooperatives. At times, they benefited. At others, they paid a price, including the brutal assassination of one of them after contesting the ruling party, or the managers of the sugar mills, who received these privileged positions by serving the PRI. McCormick persuasively argues that this pattern of interaction, in which the PRI provides social benefits and takes them away when the peasants engage in political activism, has led to the growth of authoritarianism and violence prevalent in Mexico today. The author examines how the PRI used the divide-and-rule approach in the countryside and instruments of control, such as corruption. An excellent book and highly recommended for graduate students in history, political science, and Latin American Studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty. --Irasema Coronado, University of Texas at El Paso