Review by Choice Review
Camp (Claremont Univ.) is the leading scholar on Mexican elites. Here Camp divides the comprehensive data from his Mexican political biographies project (see Mexican Political Biographies, 1884-1935, CH, Dec'91, 29-1841, and Mexican Political Biographies, 1935-1993, CH, Feb'96, 33-3061) into the predemocratic era (1935-88), the era of democratic transition (1988-2000), and the democratic period (2000-09). He then attempts to answer questions about the effects of democratization, institutional changes, and kinship ties on Mexican political leadership. Statistical data are supplemented by biographical descriptions of leaders, families, and networks. Examples of Camp's conclusions include the following: In the predemocratic era, only one of three Institutional Revolutionary Party leaders had held a political party position, compared to eight of ten National Action Party leaders. Since democracy arrived in 2000, there have been few working-class politicians in the judicial or executive branches at the national level. Democratization produced more changes in the legislative branch than in the other branch of government. Since the 1930s, more than a third of the prominent political leaders were related to other Mexicans who had reached important positions on the national or state levels. And semi-proportional representation in the Mexican Congress for opposition parties, which began in 1964, had major long-term consequences. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. R. E. Hartwig Texas A&M University--Kingsville
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review