ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Mexico has suffered from a condition of 'selective misplaced monopolies.' It shows the changes in direction of Mexico's political economy between the 1970s –2010s, according to presidential periods, given the interactions of the state/domestic economy spectrums. The 1982 economic crisis destroyed the state-led model of economic development, and slowly but surely chipped away at and then destroyed the hegemonic party system that dominated Mexico's politics between the 1940s and 1988. The state in China and Russia has managed to retain, to different degrees, a solid monopoly over the use of force and coercion in their respective territories. Federalism has tended to produce stronger centrifugal forces and less central control in Brazil and India than in Mexico during Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) hegemonic rule. The centrifugal forces that have traditionally characterized Brazil and India in terms of territorial politics are a relatively new phenomenon in Mexico.
