Mestizo critical realism: an analysis of Mexico from the strategic-relational approach

Abstract

This article opens with a brief analysis of key features of the Mexican semi-authoritarian regime. It then moves to a discussion of the critical realist positions and features that inform the strategic-relational approach (SRA). Attention is paid to social interactions and causal relations that enable the SRA to trace patterns of punctuated evolution and to highlight the processes of transformation. Since ideal types serve to highlight key characteristics in specific phenomena, processes and actors, some features of ideal types of the state and of the transition from one type to another are also discussed. In par­ticular, attention is paid to the Keynesian Welfare National State (KWNS) and to the Schumpeterian Workfare Post-national Regime (SWPR) ideal types elaborated by Jessop. For it is contended  that the specific features of these ideal types could be of great help in broadening the debate on economic restructuring and political reforms in countries such as Mexico. Moreover, the SRA provides an insight into the endogenous features of social change and stresses the importance of networking for a strategic agenda as well. For the never-static dynamics of the processes of change the role of situated agents in context is fundamental, as it injects intentionality and acknowledges the contingency of the conditions that surround them.