Social Development From 1876-1911 in Mexican History

Social Development in Mexico: 1876-1911 Reform ideas that spread during 1855-1875, "the reform period," came to be implemented at the national level under the regime of Porfirio Diaz. In the reform period, the goal of modernizing Mexico, i.e. make it more like the United States and Europe, gained many adherents. To move toward this goal, several objectives were promoted by liberal politicians.

One of them was the reduction in the power of the Catholic Church by redistributing its lands and curtailing its monopoly on religion, allowing freedom to other churches and religions to establish themselves. Another objective was to secularize education and implement modern curricula in the schools. A third objective was to promote capitalist economic development. Yet during the reform period, the implementation of the modernization agenda was sporadic and limited geographically.

The reform period was chaotic, marked by civil wars, the rule of French imperialism (and the war to end it), and a weak central government (Vanderwood, 2000, 371-396). Porfirio Diaz supported liberal ideas. During his rule, he brought political stability to Mexico, strengthened the state, and moved to implement modernization objectives. Behind the slogan of "Order and Progress" of the Diaz regime was an ideological infatuation with modernity. In adopting a positivist perspective, the government proclaimed to embrace rationality and science. From such view, science was intimately connected with modernity.

Emphasis was placed not only in the importance of physical sciences and medicine, but also in social sciences like public administration, criminology and anthropology. Members of the upper classes flocked to foreign universities (Buffington & French, 2000, 424). Attempts to modernize Mexico included social engineering. There were various efforts to homogenize a national, modern culture among the Mexican masses.

The goal was to create a new, modern Mexican citizen with such attributes as love for country (in contrast to loyalty to a locality above that to the nation), a work ethic, and morality (e.g., self restrain in the excessive consumption of alcohol. The main instrument to generate cultural modernization was through education. Elementary education was made compulsory. Government expenditures (at the national and state levels) on education doubled between 1877 and 1910. Primary enrollment, the number of teachers, and literacy rates surged. Parochial schools also increased in numbers and enrollment.

In 1910, the Education Minister inaugurated the National University. Yet inequalities in the distribution of educational resources persisted geographically, with urban and more affluent states receiving more resources (Buffington & French, 2000, 401-402, 407, 409, 411, 429). The political stability and the welcoming attitude toward foreign investment economic growth surged. With political stability came the perception of a secure business climate, e.g., in terms of property rights. The perception among capitalists was that property was protected from whimsical changes in government policies. The government also enhanced the business climate by a campaign to eradicate bandits.

The national police, the Rurales, were professionalized and expanded. The Rurales also repressed unruly workers and peasants (Buffington & French, 2000, 404, 406). Annual economic growth was 8% from 1984 to 1990, based on an export-oriented model. Foreign investment in the Diaz regime amounted to approximately $4.2 billion, mostly from the United States. Oligopolies and monopolies were the rule in industrial sectors. Industries, both foreign and domestic, oriented toward exports fostered innovation, e.g., in terms of technology. Railroads and electrification spurred import-substituting industrialization like textiles.

Yet as agriculture became concentrated in export commodities like henequen and sugar to the neglect of food staples like corn and beans, food prices increased. Low wages and the increase in food prices curtailed the domestic market for industrial goods among the general population, hindering the growth of industrialization geared toward the domestic market. About 12,000 miles of railway tracks were laid. The expansion of railways had important economic and social consequences. One is that it spurred rapid economic growth and urbanization, especially in port towns like Tampico.

Railroads also fostered a mining boom oriented toward exports, with the commercialization of new products, e.g., cooper. The expansion of railroads also triggered demand for land by large land owners, speculators and other wealthy individuals. With the commercialization of land, many peasants lost theirs, leaving the vast majority landless and generating an abundant supply of cheap labor (Buffington & French, 2000, 400, 401, 416-421, 432). The social hierarchy did not change much. The wealth generated by economic growth trickled down only slightly. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer.

Members of the middle class benefited from government employment and business opportunities, but the lower classes saw little benefit. Social mobility was sparse. The old Mexican oligarchy was strengthened under the tenure of Porfirio Diaz (Buffington & French, 2000, 400, 432). Although Buffington and French (2000) do not classify the Diaz regime as a dictatorship, it seemed to be a de facto dictatorship with a facade of constitutional legitimacy. Diaz controlled congress, the federal judiciary, and the national bureaucracy.

He could change the constitution at his convenience, and he repressed his opponents and curtailed the press. A burgeoning infrastructure, e.g., railroads, roads, and telegraph, increased the ability of the state to exert control over the national territory and the opposition. In terms of state and local politics, the system was based on clientelism and corruption. Political power did not reside in political parties but rather in cliques (camarillas) and in local political bosses.

Clientilism is characterized by patron-client networks in which political support/loyalty is exchanged for government positions, material benefits and political advancement. Clientilism, corruption, deal-making and repression were crucial for the maintenance of political stability. The clientelistic networks were controlled by state.