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Cultural Performance, Resource Flows and Passion in Politics: A Situational Analysis of an Election Rally in Western Mexico*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2007

EDWIN RAP
EDWIN RAP
Affiliation:
Edwin Rap is Lecturer at the Irrigation and Water Engineering Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
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Abstract

This article contributes to a growing body of literature that questions state-centred approaches to analysing politics, adopting a more de-centred and cultural perspective. It does so by presenting a situational analysis and detailed ethnography of a local election rally in Western Mexico. The analysis of this event as a cultural performance highlights the dramatic enactment of culturally significant acts as a central part of electoral behaviour and shows how everyday organisational life, resource flows, public ritual and passion play a part in politics. That such acts are not merely symbolic is demonstrated by what occurs behind the scenes of political ritual: a local political group appropriates a Water Users' Association and draws on its staff, facilities, resources and wider power relations for its political campaign. Such practices also indicate the unanticipated outcomes of recent administrative decentralisation reforms. New producer organisations created by these reforms to administer former government tasks more efficiently are appropriated politically, not simply in an instrumental, but also in a culturally specific manner.

Resumen: Este artículo contribuye a un creciente cuerpo de literatura que cuestiona los enfoques centrados en el Estado para analizar la política, adoptando una perspectiva más descentralizada y cultural. El autor lo hace al presentar un análisis situacional y una etnografía detallada de un mitin electoral local en el Occidente de México. El estudio de este evento como un performance cultural subraya el dramático papel de actos culturalmente significativos como parte central del comportamiento electoral y muestra cómo la vida organizativa cotidiana, el flujo de recursos, el ritual público y la pasión, juegan parte de la política. El que tales actos no sean meramente simbólicos se demuestra por lo que ocurre tras bambalinas del ritual político: un grupo político local se apropia de una Asociación de Usuarios del Agua y se basa en su personal, facilidades, recursos y relaciones más amplias de poder para su campaña política. Tales prácticas también indican los resultados no anticipados de las recientes reformas administrativas de descentralización. Nuevas organizaciones de productores creadas por estas reformas para administrar las antiguas tareas gubernamentales de manera más eficiente son apropiadas políticamente, no simplemente de forma instrumental sino también cultural.

Palabras clave: México, desempeño cultural, manejo de recursos, reforma administrativa, transferencia del manejo de irrigación, descentralización política, cultura política, caciquismo.

Resumo: Este artigo é uma contribuição a um crescente número de textos que questionam abordagens de análises políticas que são centradas no estado, ao invés adotando uma perspectiva mais descentralizada e cultural. Ele o faz apresentando uma análise localizada e uma etnografia detalhada de um comício eleitoral local no México ocidental. A análise deste evento como uma performance cultural destaca a encenação dramática de atos culturalmente significativos como uma parte central do comportamento eleitoral além de mostrar como a vida organizacional, o escoamento de recursos, o ritual público e a paixão cotidianos têm um papel na política. Que tais atos não sejam meramente simbólicos é demonstrado pelo que ocorre nos bastidores de um ritual político: um grupo político local apropria uma Associação de Usuários de Água e vale-se de seu pessoal, facilidades, recursos e relações de poder mais amplas para sua campanha política. Tais práticas também apontam para conseqüências imprevistas de recentes reformas descentralizadoras. Novas organizações de produtores criadas por estas reformas para administrar antigos serviços do governo de maneira mais eficiente são apropriadas politicamente, não simplesmente de forma instrumental, mas, outrossim, de uma maneira culturalmente específica.

Palavras-chave: México, performance cultural, gerenciamento de recursos, reforma administrativa, transferência da administração da irrigação, descentralização política, cultura política, caciquismo

Keywords

Mexicocultural performanceresource managementadministrative reformirrigation management transferpolitical decentralisationpolitical culturecaciquismo
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , August 2007 , pp. 595 - 625
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

1  The names of persons in this article are fictitious, whenever it is necessary to protect their identity.

2  Munro, Rolland, ‘The Cultural Performance of Control’, Organization Studies, vol. 20, no. 4 (1999), pp. 619–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3  I have discussed this model at length elsewhere, see: Rap, Edwin, ‘The Success of a Policy Model: Irrigation Management Transfer in Mexico’, Journal of Development Studies, vol. 42, no. 8 (2006), pp. 1301–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4  Barracca, Stephen, ‘Devolution and the Deepening of Democracy: Explaining Outcomes of Municipal Reform in Mexico’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 37, no.1 (2005), pp. 1–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5  Jeffrey W. Rubin, Decentering the Regime: Ethnicity, Radicalism, and Democracy in Juchitán, Mexico (Durham, 1997).

6  Robert Aitken, ‘Localizing Politics: Cardenismo, the Mexican State and Local Politics in Contemporary Michoacán’, unpubl. PhD diss., University of Leiden, 1999.

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15  In a classic case, Max Gluckman studied the dramatic roles of Zulus and Europeans in the collective and ritual celebrations around the opening of a bridge in Zululand. From the ‘situational analysis’ of this public occasion, he inferred theoretical insights concerning the social structure and processes of change at work in society. See Gluckman, Max, Analysis of a Social Situation in Modern Zululand (Manchester, 1958)Google Scholar and Velsen, Jaap van, ‘The Extended-case Method and Situational Analysis’, in Epstein, A. L. (ed.), The Craft of Social Anthropology (London, 1967), pp. 129–49Google Scholar.

16  D. Parkin, L. Caplan and H. Fisher (eds.), The Politics of Cultural Performance (Oxford, 1996).

17  Erwin Goffman. ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’ (New York, 1959), p. 254

18  Ibid., p. 242.

19  Ibid., p. 111.

20  Rolland Munro, ‘The Cultural Performance of Control’.

21  Turner, Victor, The Anthropology of Performance (New York, 1987), p. 74Google Scholar.

22  Rolland Munro, ‘The Cultural Performance of Control’, p. 619.

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24  Land reform communities created after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 are called ejidos. Before the revision of Article 27 of the Constitution in 1992, ejido land belonged to the nation, with a combination of community (ejido) and individual (ejidatario) usufruct. Ejido members are called ejidatarios. Landowners in the other landowning category in Mexico are called pequeños propietarios: private farmers with a limit on land ownership of 100 hectares of land.

25  Pieter de Vries, ‘Vanishing Mediators: Enjoyment as a Political Factor in Western Mexico’.

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28  Parkin et al., The Politics of Cultural Performance, p. xxxvi.

29  Each of the fifty-four ejidos is allowed to send its president, secretary and treasurer of the ejido committee and the president of the control committee; this implies a total of 216 votes.

30  The ejido assembly elects an executive committee, consisting of the following ejido commissioners: a president or comisariado ejidal, a secretary and a treasurer. In addition, the assembly chooses a control committee.

31  Tobacco prices remained far below official world market prices. ARIC was subject to agreements between the federal and state government and the companies. Further, they depended economically on the companies, and these were unwilling to pay higher prices.

32  See also Lomnitz, Larissa Adler, Elena, Rodrigo Salazar, Adler, Ilya, Simbolismo y Ritual en la Política Mexicana (Mexico, 2005)Google Scholar.

33  Bryceson, Deborah F., Alcohol in Africa: Mixing Business, Politics and Pleasure (Portsmouth, 2002)Google Scholar.

34  Although initially he owned a plot of a few hectares in the Solorceño ejido, he did not cultivate it himself, but rented it out and later even sold it.

35  The rationale behind providing privileged access was never just financial, but was enmeshed with relations of friendship, commerce and political support.

36  This practice is very similar to the way in which government cars, personnel and resources used to be and still are mobilised for PRI events. The difference is that, in this case, the transport is mobilised and financed from non-government resources diverted from a WUA.

37  Two elections stand out in this respect. In 1975, Alejandro Gascon, who had a strong support base on the Northern Coast, won the Nayarit governorship elections for the Popular Socialist Party, PPS. This victory was not conceded by the PRI. Later, in 1993, the left wing party PRD effectively mobilised popular discontent on the Northern Coast about the privatisation of Tabamex and agricultural decline in general. The PRI only recognised their victory on the Left Bank of the River Santiago.

38  Klesner, J. L., ‘Political Change in Mexico: Institutions and Identity’, Latin American Research Review, vol. 32, no. 2 (1997), pp. 184–200Google Scholar.

39  This is expressed in the saying ‘There is no such thing as a free lunch’. Nobel laureate Milton Friedman took this phrase to summarise the nature of all (economic) transactions. See Milton Friedman, There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (La Salle, 1975).

40  See also Lomnitz, Claudio, ‘Ritual, Rumor, and Corruption in the Constitution of Polity in Modern Mexico, Journal of Latin American Anthropology, vol. 1, no. 1 (1995), pp. 20–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41  Rubin, Decentering the Regime and Aitken, ‘Localizing Politics’.

42  Beezley et al., Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance; Adler Lomnitz et al., Simbolismo y Ritual, and Lomnitz, ‘Ritual, Rumor, and Corruption’.

43  Lomnitz, ‘Ritual, Rumor, and Corruption’. p. 20.

44  Chantal Mouffe, On the Political (London, 2005), p. 25.

45  Ibid., p. 6.

46  The Washington Post, December 4, 2003, p. A33.

47  Edwin Rap, ‘The Success of a Policy Model: Irrigation Management Transfer in Mexico’.