Introduction

Until the late 1990s, the Mexican Congress functioned as a rubber-stamp institution whose main function was the endorsement of the presidential agenda. The dominance of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the electoral arena, which allowed it to manage ample majorities in Congress, along with the subordination of legislators to the executive branch, hindered the development of legislative institutional capacities to elaborate and amend bills and to supervise federal public policies. The executive branch, supported by the bureaucracy, designed and implemented almost all federal programs with scarce legislative input. Since PRI presidents and the federal government agencies had control over the policy process, it was not necessary for legislators either to become policy specialists or to invest resources and time in the development of professional staff that could carry out policy analysis in diverse social and economic areas. Although certain internal bargaining and compromise between PRI legislators and the president took place in order to approve certain laws, members of Congress only had to maintain party discipline and support the presidential agenda in order to advance their political careers. Therefore, policy analysis was not a capacity required to perform legislative functions.

However, as the process of democratization advanced and opposition parties began to win seats in Congress, the legislative branch started to become an important player in the policy making process. A decisive moment in the democratization process was in 1997 when the PRI lost the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies. This electoral defeat forced the president and PRI legislators to negotiate the passing of all laws with the opposition parties for the first time since 1929. The new political scenario brought important changes to this house of Congress: legislative internal rules were modified and new internal congressional institutions were created. Among the institutional innovations was the foundation of congressional research centers—specialised in diverse policy areas—and the hiring of permanent advisors and external consultancies to support the legislative work. Another action aimed at professionalizing congressional staff was the establishment of a civil service system in 2000. Despite these efforts to professionalize Congress, it is unclear what its capacities are and what type of policy analysis is carried out by research centers, legislative staff and external consultants.