Abstract
This chapter deals with matters related to the federal system in terms of its configuration in the Mexican Constitution and in local constitutions. Regarding the Mexican political system, a brief explanation of its evolution is made. After this, reference is made to the organic configuration of the Mexican municipalities as a government order from the constitutional reform of 1999 and the powers that were assigned to them, in addition to their sources of financing. To conclude, the means of constitutional control that the municipalities have and that they promote before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is indicated, in the event that any other order of government (federal or state), power or body violates any of its competences.
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Notes
- 1.
Hamilton et al. (2012).
- 2.
de la Quadra-Salcedo (2014), pp. 97–152.
- 3.
Jurisprudential thesis regarding the orders of government in the Mexican State. P./J. 136/2005, Semanario Judicial de la Federación y su Gaceta, Novena Época, tomo XXII, octubre de 2005, p. 2062.
- 4.
Carpizo (2001).
- 5.
Art. 135 of the Political Constitution of the Mexican United States (hereinafter ‘Mexican Constitution’).
- 6.
Art. 73 of the Mexican Constitution.
- 7.
de Vergottini (2004).
- 8.
Cárdenas (2004).
- 9.
Mainly by Article 116 of the Mexican Constitution.
- 10.
Its constitutional regulation can be found in Art. 115 of the Mexican Constitution.
- 11.
Art. 2 of the Mexican Constitution.
- 12.
Before the Mexican revolution, some prefectures erased and controlled the municipalities. As a result, the constitutional text states as follows: ‘The competency this Constitution grants the municipal government will be executed by the City Council exclusively, and there would not be intermediate authority between it and the state Government’. (Art. 115 of the Mexican Constitution).
- 13.
Loewenstein (1976).
- 14.
In the U.S. federalism, since the beginning, there has been a clear notion of the necessity for judicial instruments for the judges to give effect to the Constitution and, in special cases, the power control among the states of the federal government. In Mexico, these instruments were activated until the end of the nineteenth century (1994).
- 15.
Tarr (2009).
- 16.
Rabasa (2016), pp. 33–54.
- 17.
Samaniego Santamaría (2010), p. 7.
- 18.
González Ortiz (1997).
- 19.
Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana (1990), pp. 47–49.
- 20.
Denegre Vaught Alcocer (2011), pp. 23–32.
- 21.
Berna (2012).
- 22.
First period: 1876–1880; second period: 1880–1884, third period: 1888, fourth period: 1888–1892, fifth period: 1892–1896, sixth period: 1896–1900, seventh period: 1900–1904, and eighth period: 1904–1910. For more details: Sayeg (1987), pp. 589–627.
- 23.
Sartori (2003).
- 24.
Art. 83 of the Mexican Constitution.
- 25.
- 26.
The PRI recognized its first defeat in state elections in 1989 against Ernesto Ruffo in the state of Baja California.
- 27.
In 1946, the PAN won its first election by obtaining the majority in the municipality of Quiroga, Michoacán. For more information, consult Carrillo Luvianos et al. (2010), pp. 83–106.
- 28.
In the Mexican case, the executives of the local entities are legally called ‘municipal presidents’.
- 29.
Aragón (2002).
- 30.
The 1977 reform, also known as ‘governability clause’, allowed political plurality. In this sense, consult the jurisprudential thesis P./J. 73/2001, Semanario Judicial de la Federación y su Gaceta, Novena Época, tomo XIII, p. 625. In local governments, this constitutional reform introduced the system of minority deputies in the elections of local legislatures and the proportional representation principle of elections in municipalities with more than 3,000 inhabitants.
- 31.
For Loewenstein, the normative aspect is the one observed by those interested. In the case of federalism with these characteristics, this article refers to the federalism executed by its recipients and holders of power. Loewenstein (1976), p. 4.
- 32.
Schmitt (2003), pp. 175 ff.
- 33.
The National Federation of Municipalities in Mexico (FENAMM), National Association of Majors and Municipalities (ANAC), and Mexico’s Association of Local Authorities A.C. (AALMAC) are among the associations of municipalities.
- 34.
The initiative of the Federal Executive’s head in 2010 is one example. In this said initiative, the wider government order was empowered to assist. That is to say, the order closest to solve the problem, even though it is not the one responsible for it.
- 35.
In 2014, the Federal Executive’s initiative aimed to disappear or exclude the local police.
- 36.
PAN (Partido Acción Nacional, National Action Party), PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institutional, Institutional Revolutionary Party), MORENA (Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional, Movement of National Regeneration).
- 37.
Art. 115, fraction I, second paragraph of the Mexican Constitution.
- 38.
This mechanism is ruled in the Fiscal Coordination Law published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on 27 December 1978. It consists in the adhesion of the state to the said pact of fiscal coordination. The states may renounce signing this agreement. Refusing the signage would win the collection of local taxes but lose access to several federal funds.
- 39.
It is comprised of ten states: Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. For more information, consult the following link: https://alianzafederalista.org/.
- 40.
The principal reform was changing ‘the municipality will be administered by a City Council’ for ‘the municipality will be governed by a City Council.’ Art. 115, faction I of the Mexican declares that ‘each municipality will be governed by a City Council selected by direct popular election […]’.
- 41.
The mayor is responsible for municipal public administration. On the one hand, the councilmen are the community’s representatives. Their mission is to participate in the attention of municipalities’ matters and to ensure the exercise of the Municipal Public Administration is performed according to normative dispositions that may apply. On the other hand, the trustees guard the administration of the public funds, the legality of the City Council’s acts, the adequate collection and application of public funds, and overseeing the municipality’s estate.
- 42.
Art. 107, faction II, Constitution of the State of Nayarit.
- 43.
Art. 32 of the Organic Law of the Free Municipality of the State of Guerrero. In this sense, María del Rosario Quiñones may be consulted Quiñones (2011), pp. 46–57.
- 44.
Public services are the following: potable water, drainage, sewerage, treatment, and disposing of wastewaters; public lightning, cleaning, collection, transportation, treatment, and disposing of residues; markets and supply centers, cemeteries; slaughterhouses; equipped streets, parks, and gardens; public security according to the terms of Art. 21 of the Mexican Constitution; local preventive police and transit police, in addition to those the state legislatures determine according to territorial and socioeconomic conditions in the municipalities and their financial and administrative capacities.
- 45.
The association and coordination between municipalities aim to provide public services or other faculty acknowledged in the Mexican Constitution.
- 46.
Published on 3 February 1983 in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
- 47.
Published on 23 December 1999 in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
- 48.
When the Constitution mentions the terms of the federal and state laws, it refers to the general laws, which leaves a margin to operate so the states may adjust and detail the competence of the general law rules.
- 49.
Art. 115, fraction V of the Mexican Constitution.
- 50.
If the disappearance is declared, the states will design Municipal Councils among the neighbors, who will conclude the respective periods. Article 115, faction I, fifth paragraph of the Mexican Constitution.
- 51.
The state laws determine what grave causes qualify for suspension. Art. 115, faction I, third paragraph of the Mexican Constitution.
- 52.
- 53.
Constitutional Controversy 82/2016 and Constitutional Controversy 158/2016 are examples.
- 54.
The municipalities collect taxes on properties. In this regard, the Constitution stipulates that the municipalities may (A) receive the contributions, including additional rates, the States determine on the real estate, its fractioning, division, consolidation, transportation, and improvement; in addition to those based on the properties’ change of value. (B) the federal participation, which the Federation will cover to the Municipalities with arrangements on the bases, amounts, and periods the States Legislatures annually determine. (C) The incomes derived from their provision of public services. Finally, article 115 declares that the federal laws will not limit the States’ faculties to establish the contributions referred to in sections A and C, nor will they grant exemptions. The state laws will not give exemptions or subsidies in favor of a person or institution regarding these contributions. Only the public domain properties of the Federation, states, or municipalities will be exempted unless the said properties are used by parastatals or particulars under any title for administrative ends or purposes different from their public objective.
- 55.
Each state may have a different denomination of this law, namely, Municipal Government Law.
- 56.
Some general laws regulate the postulates and requirements needed to make this type of agreement.
- 57.
Torres (2009), pp. 87–102.
- 58.
On the matters of rights, products, and utilizations see Merino (2001).
- 59.
Published on 27 December 1978 in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
- 60.
Before the 2016 reform to Art. 122 of the Mexican Constitution, they were called ‘delegations’. Currently, the territorial demarcations of Ciudad de Mexico and the government’s organs of this demarcations are named ‘city councils’.
- 61.
Art. 1 of the Fiscal Coordination Law.
- 62.
In 2012, the tax on vehicular tenure became a state tax (before, a federal tax), and its collection was at the discretion of each state. In 2020, some states collected it, for example, Baja California, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, and Veracruz. Likewise, the tax on vehicular tenure is exempted when the vehicle’s worth is lower than a determined amount.
- 63.
The property tax is the tributary fee the owner must pay.
- 64.
This expense comprises resources the Federation provides to the local governments (contributions, participations, agreements, subsidies).
- 65.
State public resources are the incomes of the local governments adding both the federal expense and the local collection.
- 66.
The local government’s collections are the internal income obtained through taxes, rights, or public services.
- 67.
Cernichiaro (2020).
- 68.
INEGI, Press Release Number 632/20 of 9 December 2020. Gross Domestic Product by State in 2019. For more information, see the following link: https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/saladeprensa/boletines/2020/OtrTemEcon/PIBEntFed2019.pdf.
- 69.
Our own creation with information from the Global Revenue Statistics Database. Local Government, Total Tax Revenue. Tax revenue as % of GDP and Total Tax revenue in USD. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2018. Collection of the OCDE’s members. See: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=SNA_TABLE1#.
- 70.
Source: Budgetary Transparency: Observing the Expense. https://www.transparenciapresupuestaria.gob.mx/es/PTP/Recaudacion_Local.
- 71.
Montesquieu (1998), pp. 102–103.
- 72.
Ferrero (1943).
- 73.
The judicial control may be understood in two ways. As constitutionality control (it analyzes that the authority’s acts agree with the constitution or does not transgress individual rights) and as a legality control (when a determined controversy gives judicial certainty to the authorities’ actions by summiting them to jurisdictional revision). Márquez (2005), pp. 24–25.
- 74.
Professor Aragón declared that the ‘objectivated’ character of control supposes the acts, not people nor ‘conducts’ of the heads of public organs, are summited to control. To rephrase it, the objectivated products of the will of the said organs are what is analyzed. Aragón (1986), p. 103.
- 75.
Huerta (2010), p. 36.
- 76.
Commercial matters may be known by federal or local courts, even though in practice, they are ventilated in state courts since commercial cases are ventilated before civil or concurrent judges. See Article 104, faction II of the Mexican Constitution.
- 77.
Published on 24 February 2017 in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
- 78.
Published on 31 December 1994 in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
- 79.
The SCJN consisted of 26 ministers. Since the reform, this number changed to 11 with a term of 15 years in the position.
- 80.
Fix-Zamudio (2006), pp. 131–192.
- 81.
Carpizo (1995), pp. 807–842.
- 82.
A reglementary law revises aspects that are presented broadly in the Constitution. For instance, the amparo trial is the Reglementary Law of articles 103 and 107 of the Mexican Constitution.
- 83.
For more information on constitutional controversies, see Ferrer and Fix-Zamudio (2017), pp. 239–299.
- 84.
From 1917 to 1994, 24 constitutional controversies were resolved. For more information, see the following link of the SCJN: https://www.scjn.gob.mx/pleno/seccion-tramite-controversias/controversias-constitucionales-1917-1994.
- 85.
Source: Portal of Judicial Statistics of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. See: https://estadisticajudicial.scjn.gob.mx/alex/controversias.aspx.
- 86.
Bustillos (2009), p. 30.
- 87.
Published in the Official Paper of the State on 20 June 2014.
- 88.
It is noteworthy that the Reglementary Law of article 95 of the Constitution of Nuevo León was published in July 2014, meaning it took a decade to regulate the constitutional procedural law in the state.
- 89.
Art. 11, fraction XII of the Organic Law of the Judicial Power of the State of Coahuila was published in the Official Paper of the State on 11 December 1990.
- 90.
Thesis P./J. 136/2001, Pleno de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, Semanario Judicial de la Federación y su Gaceta, novena época, t. XV, enero de 2002, p. 917.
- 91.
Another reference is Suárez and Mortera (2016), pp. 195–256.
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Torres Estrada, P.R., Garza, R.G. (2023). The Municipality in the Mexican Federal System. In: Nicolini, M., Valdesalici, A. (eds) Local Governance in Multi-Layered Systems. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 108. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41792-4_9
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