Mexican Local Governance in Transition

Important innovations have recently democratized local government in Mexico and improved its performance. These include changes in mayors’ leadership style, broader citizen participation, and improved intergovernmental relations and public management systems. But these changes have not come easily. This article analyzes obstacles to institutionalizing changes, presents the negative effects of some new public management-based reforms, and analyzes the paradoxes that accompany this transition from autocracy to the current “limited democratization.”