Administered Production: Continuities in Mexican Political Economy

Abstract

This chapter is a comparative analysis that illustrates the importance of political institutions as organisers of productive resources in agrarian economies at the local level of the Mexican nation-state. The framework for the comparative analysis is historical and ethnographic. First, a 50-year microhistory of the Yucatecan village of Chan Kom indicates a progressive monopolisation of land and labour resources by political administrators. Secondly, an examination of pre-colonial and colonial forms of labour organisation in Yucatan indicates continuities in patterns of land and labour organisation over time. Thirdly, two brief ethnographic comparisons confirm the importance of political institutions organising production processes. Local administrators historically have used their connections to national political institutions to control the allocation of productive resources and the channels of access to distribution networks, including international money markets as well as marketplaces. From pre-Columbian times to the present, local administrators, whether they were pre-colonial Maya territorial leaders or post-revolutionary ejido officials, have used state-controlled resources to their own advantage.