ABSTRACT
Post-politics understood as a ‘non-political’ global configuration based on the consensus that the capitalist market is the main organisational support of modern society and the liberal state its ‘administrative’ branch, has deeply influenced Mexican public policies since the early eighties as it is in the National Social Housing Policy. The Federal government’s role became a facilitator that allowed private developers to take full responsibility for the construction of social housing; this shift took place in many economic and social sectors and it was a decision of the Mexican government along with the private sector. In other words, it was the beginning of the end of mainstream Welfare State and the alignment of Mexican politics to neoliberalism. An important socio-political consequence of the latter is that the Mexican state is not anymore the principal decision-maker in the housing policy and that Mexico is moving to a post-political era of ‘entrepreneurialism’. For that reason, the National Social Housing Policy cannot be considered a satisfactory social policy. Moreover, it cannot be considered a proper social policy because social, spatial and environmental problems have increased in most cities where the housing developments were built. Therefore, the chapter discusses the need for a transformation that has to pursue grassroots stakeholders and social actors fighting for political alternatives to the depoliticising strategies of the consensual order, which often have taken a populist form.
