Federalism and Foreign Affairs: The International Relations of Mexican Sub-State Governments

Authors: Jorge A. Schiavon

Abstract:

This article analyzes the international relations of sub-State governments (IRSSG) in Mexico. It aims to answer five questions: 1) What explains the recent and dramatic increase in their international activities? 2) What is the impact of federalism on the foreign affairs of the federal units? 3) What are the levels or degrees of IRSSG and how have they changed over the last years? 4) How do Mexican federal units institutionalize their international activities? 5) What are the perceptions and capacities of the federal units in their internationalization process? The first section argues that the growth in the IRSSG is generated by growing interdependence and globalization in the international system, and democratization, decentralization and structural reform in the national arena. The second section sustains that the renewed Mexican federalism has generated the incentives for SSG to participate more intensively in international affairs. The third section defends that there is a wide variation in their degree of international participation, which is measured in three moments in time (2004 2009 and 2014), and explains how this activity has changed in the last decade. The fourth section studies the institutionalization of the IRSSG in Mexico through the analysis of Inter-Institutional Agreements (IIA). Finally, the last section concentrates in explaining the perceptions and capacities of Mexican sub-State governments to conduct international relations.

Keywords: Federalism, foreign policy, international relations of sub-state governments, paradiplomacy, Mexico.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2363316

References:

[1] Fuentes, Ninfa and Jorge A. Schiavon. 2007. “Structural Reform and Regional Integration in the Americas”. In Michèle Rioux (dir.). Building the Americas. Brussels: Bruylant.
[2] World Bank. 2000. Entering the 21st Century: World Development Report 1999/2000. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
[3] Weldon, Jeffrey A. 1997. “The Political Sources of Presidentialism in Mexico”. In Scott Mainwaring and Matthew S. Shugart (eds.). Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[4] Ward, Peter M., Victoria E. Rodríguez, and Enrique Cabrero. 1999. New Federalism and State Government in Mexico: Bringing the States Back In. Austin: The University of Texas at Austin.
[5] Weldon, Jeffrey A. 1997. “The Political Sources of Presidentialism in Mexico”. In Scott Mainwaring and Matthew S. Shugart (eds.). Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6] Schiavon, Jorge A.. 2015. “Una década de acción internacional de los gobiernos locales mexicanos (2005-2015)”, Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior, 104 (May-Aug.): 103-127.
[7] Schiavon, Jorge A. 2006. La Proyección Internacional de las Entidades Federativas: México ante el Mundo. Mexico: Instituto Matías Romero-SRE.
[8] Schiavon, Jorge A. 2010. “Sub-State diplomacy in Mexico”. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 5 (1-2): 65-97.
[9] Kincaid, John. 2003. “Public Opinion on Federalism in Canada, Mexico, and the United States in 2003”. Publius: The Journal of Federalism 33 (summer): 145-162.
[10] Michelmann, Hans J. And Panayotis Soldatos. 1990. Federalism and International Relations: The Role of Subnational Units. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[11] Nganje, Fritz. 2013. “Paradiplomacy: A Comparative Analysis of the International Relations of South Africa’s Gauteng, North West and Western Cape Provinces.” PhD Dissertation, Johannesburg: Faculty of Humanities. University of Johannesburg.
[12] Schiavon, Jorge A. 2006. La Proyección Internacional de las Entidades Federativas: México ante el Mundo. Mexico: Instituto Matías Romero-SRE.