Week Eleven
The Mexican Miracle, 1940s-60s
***********************************************************************

A. Economics

- industrialization
- national income, per capita income rise..fast!..especially in cities
- low budget deficits
- Mexican ownership + intl capital
- smaller military
- U.S. investment
- public works projects

highways, dams, electric grid, telecommunications, housing

B. International relations

- WWII, FDR's Good Neighbor Policy
- braceros program
- Cold War balancing act

C. Politics

- 1946, Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) founded: adds business community representatives
- centralization of executive power
- bureaucratic authoritarianism of the PRI:

Miguel Avila Camacho (1940-46)
Miguel Alemán (1946-52)
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (1952-1958)
Adolfo López Mateos (1958-64)
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (1964-70)

C. What tarnishes the miracle?

- rich/poor and urban/rural gaps remain
- limits of agrarian reform
- population growth
- political frustration with 'one-party democracy'
- youth movement: 1968 Tlatelolco