ABSTRACT
The critical element of the Conasupo Modemización Plan (CMP) was replacing Mexico’s traditional policy of general consumption subsidies for basic foodstuffs with targeted schemes. It was unavoidable that scrapping general subsidies would impact state-society relations, as overall consumption of basic foodstuffs declined. However, because the new subsidy policy of ‘targeting’ envisioned an additional 20 million Mexicans (for a total of 50 million) consuming Conasupo goods by 1994, it is an open question how far the CMP encouraged greater market liberalisation (neoliberalism and ‘discontinuity’) rather than intervention (populism, clientelism and ‘continuity’). To evaluate this situation, this chapter analyses Conasupo’s three core consumption schemes: the Tortilla Programme, the Milk Programme and the Community Supply Programme.
