Denise Dresser, Mexico from López Obrador to a government with a strong president and a weak state

During his first five months, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the first Mexican left, tried to differentiate themselves from previous administrations with a "whirlwind" of bold changes, constitutional amendments and reforms who have dismantled a lot of the checks and balances that the reformers of Mexico have struggled to build, Denise Dresser, political badyst considered.

In an article for the magazine Foreign Affairstitled "The new president of Mexico pushes the clock of democracy", Dresser wrote that up to now, the results of the actions of López Obrador were mixed and often unpredictable, but with a 65% approval rate, a transformation mandate and an ineffective opposition, AMLO "met with few obstacles to change the status quo".

He warned that one of the reforms that López Obrador has not yet implemented is the put the limit to your powerand if it does not, it risks driving the country backwards.

So far, one of the examples of how AMLO's influence could work against institutions was the confrontation he had with the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) In December 2018, just days after coming to power, the magistrates refused to reduce their salaries as part of the new government's austerity measures and launched a campaign to spread the salaries of judicial branch agents. and even to compare them. those of the former presidents of the United States, which This triggered a climate of animosity against this institution.

"The goal of the modern state is to restrict the power of the executive by depersonalizing its use." López Obrador, on the other hand, seems believe that your conscience and your personal honor are enough railing to ensure a democratic government. This attitude is reminiscent of the imperial presidency of Mexico, when its chief executive controlled the political and economic system in an omnipotent way. If the new president continues to lead in this direction, strengthening the power of the executive while weakening key institutions, Mexico could end up with a strong president commanding a weak and dysfunctional state. Paradoxically, the change that López Obrador brought to Mexico could make it a less modern place, less democratic, since this act only weakens the institutions, "wrote Dresser.

He observed that to achieve your goals to get 53 million Mexicans out of poverty, security, violence and corruption, in just five months dismantled "many checks and balances that the reformers of Mexico have struggled to build over the last three decades. He insists that the institutions created during the neoliberal period, from about 1982 to 2012, serve to obstruct the "fourth transformation".

For the political badyst, it's time to force the president to control himself ", the task that López Obrador has not been able to deal with. The president did not show whether he was going to delimit his own power or how he would do it, for example by preventing his administration from committing abuses; submit its government to constitutional rules, procedures and restrictions; and sanctioning corruption when it occurs in the ranks of one's own party ".