ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the period between the 1988 presidential campaign and the announcement (21 October 1989) and immediate reaction to the Conasupo Modernization Plan (CMP, 1990-1994) - hereafter the policy formation period (PFP). On the campaign trail candidate Carlos Salinas initiated the PFP by floating the idea of liquidating Conasupo, while as President Salinas marked its conclusion by unveiling an ambitious reform package and declaring Conasupo a ‘fundamental right earned by all Mexican workers and campesinos’ {El Gobierno Mexicano, 1994b). Analysing this brief flirtation with sharp policy discontinuity reveals much about the politics of food in Mexico, and more importantly, the constraints and pressures for innovation at Conasupo that ultimately produce significant continuity in state-society relations involving this parastatal, beneficiary groups, and President Salinas.
