ABSTRACT
The US Joint Forces Command recommended that Mexico be monitored alongside Pakistan as a "weak and failing" state that could crumble swiftly under relentless assault by violent drug cartels. The weakness of the Mexican state manifests itself in the nation's antiquated, fiscal regime combined with the ineffectiveness of the local version of the Internal Revenue Service. This double whammy means that tax collections, which have fallen during the 2009 recession, approach only 12 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—on par with Haiti, an utterly failed state, and one-third of the figure for the United States. The thirty-one state governors and Mexico City mayor whom PRI presidents kept on a short leash gained emancipation from central dominance when the opposition swept to power in 2000. Except when they descend on Mexico City during the preparation of the national budget, state executives can thumb their noses at Los Pinos.
