Mexico's Battle for Modernity

Huffington Post: On July 1st, Mexicans will head to the urns in what is only the second presidential election following 70 years of single-party rule by the PRI. On the economic front, the stakes have never been higher. For three decades, Mexico has languished in a middle-income trap of tepid growth and low productivity, notwithstanding its post-NAFTA transformation into an export powerhouse. Furthermore, its institutional development has been stunted by a political class that, despite being freed from the shackles of single-party rule, remains woefully inefficient, prone to conflict rather than compromise, and corrupt. Although much has been said of the country's recent economic revival -- it is most likely going to outpace regional poster-boy Brazil in terms of GDP growth for the second year in a row. There are reasons why the medium- and long-term outlook will be gloomier in the absence of a fundamental redesign of the way Mexico does its politics. For it is bad politics, not bad economics, that are mostly to blame for why the country has failed to reach its full potential. Read more.