ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issues by placing them within a framework of analysis that emphasizes the structural factors underlying the economic and social crisis that has afflicted the Mexican people since 1982. It reviews the economic and social situation of Mexico during the 1950s and 1960s. The chapter shows that the rapid economic growth of this period was achieved at the high cost of imbalances in the allocation of resources, distribution of income, and generation of employment. It analyzes the severe difficulties encountered by the administrations of Luis Echeverria and Jose Lopez Portillo in dealing effectively with the socioeconomic imbalances generated by an industrialization strategy based on import substitutions. The economic situation continued to deteriorate as a result of the government's inability to raise sufficient funds in international capital markets to meets its service on the external debt. The chapter examines the austerity measures implemented during the Miguel de la Madrid administration.
