Mexico has a developing economy and is in the process of shifting from dependence on government-generated regulatory pressures to reliance on market forces to foster economic development. The accession of Mexico into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) marks the implementation of liberalization in the economy.
But it has been a long and difficult road for Mexico to follow. Charles Cumberland, in his work on the historical evolution of Mexico's economy and politics entitled Mexico: The Struggle for Modernity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), provides a close look at the forces of social change that have affected the nation from the period of Spanish colonial rule through rebellion and into contemporary times. This historical analysis offers a clear picture of a nation ripe for exploitation by foreign powers. This conflict, as Cumberland explains, set the stage for an economically underdeveloped Mexico which, if not dominated by foreign powers, routinely found itself dominated by local political elites.
Indeed, Michael Meyer and William Sherman take this historical analysis a step further in their work, The Course of Mexican History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). For Meyer and Sherman, this exploitive historical experience created a sense of distrust of foreign powers by the economic and political elites of Mexico that persevered well into the 20th century. As a result, Mexico insisted in keeping a protectionist economy, even as late as the 1980s, when economic crisis pressured hard for liberalization.
A. Tornell offers some critical insight into how Mexico's political elites continued to obstruct free trade even in the face of pending economic disaster from the nation's protectionist policies. In his essay "Are Economic Crises Necessary for Trade Liberalization and Fiscal Reform? The Mexican Experience," in R. Dornbusch, ed., Reform, Recovery and Growth (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 199...