Continuity in the change? Recentralization in Mexico during the presidencies of Peña Nieto (2012-2018) and López Obrador (2018-....)

Abstract

Political, administrative and fiscal recentralization is a phenomenon that has recently become part of the political agenda of some presidents in Latin America and the world. In the Mexican case, these measures began to gain greater relevance since 2012, during the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto (PRI). In 2018, after the victory of the opposition candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Morena) -and although he represents a different political-ideological orientation to former six-year term- the measures of concentration of power and faculties towards the center continued their trend. This article analyzes the differences and similarities of recentralization in Mexico across four public policy spheres (security, health, education and political-electoral), concluding that, despite the existence of differentiating nuances, a type of recentralizing consensus persists in Mexico on the part of the different political forces at the national level.