Author: Van R. Whiting

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13:

Why did Mexico pursue a decades-long nationalist policy toward foreign investors? What were the results of that policy? Why did Mexico's leaders shift in the 1980s from nationalism to "Southern Liberalism"? In The Political Economy of Foreign Investment in Mexico, Van R. Whiting, Jr., examines the domestic and international forces that shape the political choices made by one of the Third World's largest and strongest states. Whiting contends that neither dependency nor statism is sufficient to explain foreign investment policy in Mexico. Political preferences and political choices do matter. But domestic and international structural constraints, he argues, bound the choices of policy makers. Globalization of capital and technology, for example, shapes policy options in a way that favors liberalization. In the first half of the book, Whiting examines Mexico's nationalist tradition and the limits of its foreign investment policies. The joint venture policy and the regulatory apparatus put in place in the 1970s did not succeed in replacing the capital, technology, and marketing capabilities of foreign firms. In the second half, he explains how international industrial structure limited national policy and created greater opportunities for liberalization. In his conclusion, Whiting highlights the importance of understanding "constrained choice" for moving beyond positivist explanations in social science. Using extensive fieldwork in Mexico, including more than a hundred interviews with policy makers and business executives, he shows how a powerful global trend toward industrial integration shaped choices and transformed constraints, increasing the importance of access to markets. ThePolitical Economy of Foreign Investment in Mexico will interest not only scholars and students in political science and other social sciences but also professionals in business, law, and public policy who need to understand the shift from nationalism to liberalism in major developing c