"Fox’s Mexico: Same as It Ever Was?" by Pamela K. Starr, in Current History (Feb. 2002), 4225 Main St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19127.

Hopes were high in December 2000 when Vicente Fox was sworn in as the first president of Mexico in more than 70 years who had no affiliation with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). But the Fox government has been a disappointment and Mexico seems "stuck in neutral," according to Starr, a professor of international relations at the Instituto Technológico Autónomo de México in Mexico City.

Fox’s government has been plagued by confusion, indecision, and repeated missteps, Starr says. And his National Action Party (PAN) and the PRI have been unable "to adjust their behavior to the new democratic political environment." Political bickering substitutes for action, as "Mexicans of all stripes remain steeped in an authoritarian culture."

Attempting to run Mexico as one would a private business, Fox has delegated much authority to his cabinet ministers, who have extensive experience in the private sector but little in politics. They "have regularly ruffled congressional feathers," Starr says, and have so often voiced contradictory opinions that they have been dubbed "the Montessori cabinet."

The Fox administration has had "little legislatively to crow about." Its top priority in its first year was a bill to increase the autonomy of indigenous people, intended to bring the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas to the peace table. Opposed by Fox’s own party and festooned with amendments, the law failed to achieve its underlying purpose.

The relationship between Fox and his own party’s leaders has never been easy. As a candidate he built his own campaign organization, appealed to voters directly, and forced his candidacy on the party. As president, he "named a cabinet virtually devoid of traditional PAN politicians."

The long-ruling PRI holds a majority in the Senate, the largest plurality in the Chamber of Deputies, and more than half the nation’s governorships. Although the party "lost its bearings" when it lost the presidency, Fox needed the PRI’s help to do much legislatively. But the opposition party was in no shape to negotiate—at least not until Roberto Madrazo was elected president of the party this year.

The PRI remains intent upon regaining power, and Starr sees "a growing likelihood" that the still largely unreconstructed party will succeed, retaking full control of the national legislature next year and the presidency in 2006.