IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/policy/v55y2022i4d10.1007_s11077-022-09469-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The promises and perils of populism for democratic policymaking: the case of Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna

    (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas)

Abstract

Much has been said theoretically about whether populism corrects the limitations of democracies, or instead damages their foundations. Yet we still know very little about how populist governments affect democratic policymaking in practice. Taking the classic policy cycle approach as a heuristic device, this article analyzes how populists influence agenda-setting, policy formulation and design, implementation, evaluation, and termination processes. Using a variety of sources, the article provides a qualitative in-depth analysis of the Mexican case during the first half of president Andrés-Manuel López-Obrador administration. The article shows that a populist government may fulfill some of its promises, but it ultimately materializes most of its perils, causing significant policy, institutional, and social damage. Populists introduce important distortions in each one of the policy stages and thus alter considerably the policymaking processes usually associated with democratic regimes. They employ a variety of strategies to limit the number of policy actors taking part in agenda-setting and evaluation exercises; formulate ineffective policy tools based on questionable design assumptions; develop personalistic implementation channels prone to patronage and clientelism; undermine the value of evidence-based analyses and discussions; and terminate institutions and programs on a discretionary basis. By exerting a rhetorical monopoly over the ‘will of the people,’ populists can follow policymaking patterns that significantly depart from the technical, rational, and pluralistic standards commonly associated with democratic policymaking. The article brings together debates on populism and policymaking, and studies a national case which has received limited scholarly attention, thus adding to both our theoretical and empirical contemporary understanding on this subject.

Suggested Citation

  • Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna, 2022. "The promises and perils of populism for democratic policymaking: the case of Mexico," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(4), pages 777-803, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:policy:v:55:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11077-022-09469-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11077-022-09469-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11077-022-09469-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11077-022-09469-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peters,B. Guy & Capano,Giliberto & Howlett,Michael & Mukherjee,Ishani & Chou,Meng-Hsuan & Ravinet,Pauline, 2018. "Designing for Policy Effectiveness," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108453110.
    2. Adam,Christian & Hurka,Steffen & Knill,Christoph & Steinebach,Yves, 2019. "Policy Accumulation and the Democratic Responsiveness Trap," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108481199.
    3. Sandford Borins, 2018. "Public sector innovation in a context of radical populism," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(12), pages 1858-1871, December.
    4. Dornbusch, Rudiger & Edwards, Sebastián, 1990. "La macroeconomía del populismo en la América Latina," El Trimestre Económico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, vol. 57(225), pages 121-162, enero-mar.
    5. Douglas Torgerson, 2017. "Policy sciences and democracy: a reexamination," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 50(3), pages 339-350, September.
    6. Farr, James & Hacker, Jacob S. & Kazee, Nicole, 2006. "The Policy Scientist of Democracy: The Discipline of Harold D. Lasswell," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 100(4), pages 579-587, November.
    7. Cairney,Paul & Heikkila,Tanya & Wood,Matthew, 2019. "Making Policy in a Complex World," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108729109.
    8. Dornbusch, Rudiger & Edwards, Sebastian, 1990. "Macroeconomic populism," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 247-277, April.
    9. Pirmin Bundi & Philipp Trein, 2022. "Evaluation use and learning in public policy," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(2), pages 283-309, June.
    10. György Hajnal, 2021. "Illiberal challenges to mainstream public management research: Hungary as an exemplary case," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 317-325, March.
    11. Donald Moynihan, 2022. "Delegitimization, Deconstruction and Control: Undermining the Administrative State," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 699(1), pages 36-49, January.
    12. Attila Bartha & Zsolt Boda & Dorottya Szikra, 2020. "When Populist Leaders Govern: Conceptualising Populism in Policy Making," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 71-81.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gilad, Sharon & Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Raanan & Levi-Faur, David, 2024. "Partisan Alignment and the Propensity to Choose a Job in a Government Ministry," SocArXiv ufzcj, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maximiliano Marzetti & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Long-Term Economic Effects of Populist Legal Reforms: Evidence from Argentina," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(1), pages 60-95, March.
    2. Michaud, Amanda & Rothert, Jacek, 2018. "Redistributive fiscal policies and business cycles in emerging economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 123-133.
    3. Cossu Elena, 2023. "Clustering and Analysing Relevant Policy Dimensions of Populist, Left-Wing, Centrist, and Right-Wing Parties across Europe," Central European Journal of Public Policy, Sciendo, vol. 17(1), pages 41-54, June.
    4. Marc Debus & Jale Tosun, 2021. "Political ideology and vaccination willingness: implications for policy design," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(3), pages 477-491, September.
    5. Campos, Luciano & Casas, Agustín, 2021. "Rara Avis: Latin American populism in the 21st century," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Nicolás Cachanosky & Alexandre Padilla, 2020. "A panel data analysis of Latin American populism," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 329-343, September.
    7. Ali, Amjad & Ur Rehman, Hafeez, 2015. "Macroeconomic Instability and Its Impact on Gross Domestic Product: An Empirical Analysis of Pakistan," MPRA Paper 71037, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Alan de Bromhead & Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke, 2024. "Should history change the way we think about populism?," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(3), pages 1086-1109, August.
    9. Nina Nikolova & Shteryo Nozharov, 2020. "Shadow Economy and Populism – Risk and Uncertainty Factors for Establishing Low-Carbon Economy of Balkan Countries (Case Study for Bulgaria)," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 121-144.
    10. Moumita Basu & Jonaki Sengupta & Ranjanendra Narayan Nag, 2018. "Exchange Rate Dynamics, Endogenous Risk Premium and the Balance Sheet Effect: An Effective Demand Model," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 7(2), pages 212-239, December.
    11. Daniel L. Bennett & Christopher Boudreaux & Boris Nikolaev, 2023. "Populist discourse and entrepreneurship: The role of political ideology and institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 151-181, February.
    12. Mustafa Ismihan & Kivilcim Metin-Ozcan & Aysit Tansel, 2002. "Macroeconomic Instability, Capital Accumulation and Growth: The Case of Turkey 1963-1999," Working Papers 0209, Economic Research Forum, revised 21 Mar 2002.
    13. Strobl, Martin & Sáenz de Viteri, Andrea & Rode, Martin & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2023. "Populism and inequality: Does reality match the populist rhetoric?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 1-17.
    14. Emilio Ocampo, 2023. "Dollarization as an Effective Commitment Device: The Case of Argentina," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 848, Universidad del CEMA.
    15. Manuel Fernández & Gabriela Serrano, 2022. "New Perspectives on Inequality in Latin America," Documentos CEDE 20295, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    16. Fedotenkov, Igor & Idrisov, Georgy, 2021. "A supply-demand model of public sector size," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(2).
    17. Fedotenkov, Igor & Idrisov, Georgy, 2019. "A supply-demand model of the size of public sector and Wagner's law," MPRA Paper 94973, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Hartwell, Christopher A., 2022. "Populism and financial markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    19. Sybil D. Rhodes & Jorge M. Streb, 2018. "Populismo y democracia antiliberal: La experiencia Argentina como paradigma," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 675, Universidad del CEMA.
    20. Alessandro Rebucci & Chang Ma, 2019. "Capital Controls: A Survey of the New Literature," NBER Working Papers 26558, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:policy:v:55:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11077-022-09469-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.