Counterweights to the government continue to weaken

In terms of counterweights to government power (Federal Executive) Mexico has registered a worldwide drop since 2015, according to data from the World Justice Project’s Global Rule of Law Index.

For that year, the country registered a score of 0.51 —where 1 is a high level of checks and balances to government power—, ranking 61st out of 102; for 2016 the score was 0.47, consequently Mexico fell to 83rd place out of 113.

In 2017 the nation scored 0.46, one tenth less than a year before, however, it maintained its place.

In 2018, the country achieved the same score of 0.46, placing it 83rd out of 113 nations.

For 2019, the score improved by climbing one tenth to 0.47; for 2020 the score dropped again to 0.46 and with it the position of Mexico compared to the world, ranking 89th out of 128.

In 2021, a new drop was registered when the country scored 0.45, which consequently caused Mexico to fall to position 102 out of 139.

While this 2022, the third consecutive year in which Mexico’s score fell, reaching 0.44, nevertheless, the place occupied by the country remained at 102 out of a total of 140 nations.

Legislative, weak: expert

For Lourdes Morales Canales, coordinator of the Network for Accountability, she is concerned that counterweights such as Legislative and Judicial powers, as well as citizen participation, have been reduced.

“There is a reduction in civic space, even though there is a discourse in which it is said that there is no closure and that citizen participation is not limited, because in fact it has been limited and we see that there is little social vigilance about possible abuses of power, hence the relevance of the limits of power,” he said.

In an interview, the expert highlighted the case of the federal Legislative power and its decline in its effectiveness as a counterweight to the Executive.

“The truth is that we didn’t need a measurement to verify it, the daily news shows us that the Legislative acts as official of parts of the Executive; there is very little deliberation, there is no prioritization of issues that coincides with the needs of the population and we see that this possibility of the Legislature acting as a watchdog for the other public powers continues to decline.

politica@eleconomista.mx