ABSTRACT
In the early 1980s, Mexico's process of development appears to have reached a crucial juncture, propelled to a great extent by its petroleum resources. Mexico has achieved by a significant degree of national integration. Nationalism is the most powerful political force in Mexico. Mexico's stability and orderly development are directly related to whether its political system can overcome the gnawings of domestic and international flux, and whether it can be flexible enough to accommodate new groups and sectors of the population into an inclusionary scheme. There appears to be a prevalent tendency in the United States to equate increased Mexican oil production with closer US-Mexican relations and a healthier process of development in Mexico. The Mexican government would seem to be caught in the vicious circle of high levels of oil production, recrudescence of socioeconomic shortcomings, and efforts at compensation through higher levels of oil production. The Mexican state has been evolving since the reform period in the 1850s.
