Mexican politics

Mexican politics is invisible to the untrained eye. At first glance, Mexico's, political institutions and practices suggest a decentralized, open and democratic society; but it is immediately understandable that the natural by-product of a centralized economy should be a centralized political system. "Democracy Lite" was the ironic label for Mexico's political culture that one Mexican artist recently at a private luncheon at a residence on the outskirts of Mexico City in July 2001.

Because the management of the centralized economy largely stays in the same families from one generation to the next, it is understandable that there should exist a species of virtual royalty. On one level, the study of Mexican politics is the study of the rivalries and pretensions-to-the-throne of Mexico's extended (virtual) royal family. While there is no formal system of dukes and duchesses, princes and princesses, there is an invisible metric of authority and prestige given in Mexico on account of blood and kinship lines of those families that form part of the cross-generation political elite.