Referring to the end of the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn wrote that “the revolution is an amalgam of former party officials, quasi-democratic KGB officers and black market operators that today concentrate power and represent a dirty hybrid never seen before.”
We in Mexico have our own fair collection of hybrids that explain many of the contrasts and gaps that characterize us. They also illustrate the limitations of any development project that does not include comprehensive solutions to our problems.
To begin with, Mexico seems to be the land of no definition. We prefer partial solutions rather than definitive actions. The phrase used by many lawyers in Mexico “it is better to have a bad deal than a good fight” is not only a common practice but a logical response to our circumstance. Except that this way of dealing with problems only works when the fundamental issues have been resolved, when there are structures and institutions that protect the decision process, when the contracts made are respected and they are used to protect the rights of all citizens. In the absence of an environment of this nature, half measures only bring about mediocre results.
Here’s a small sample of our hybrids:
- Taxes are a world unto itself. In our country there are two types of citizens: those who pay taxes and those who enjoy exceptions and exemptions. The former live in a controlled world where their taxes are withheld even before they receive their income. They are citizens who, willingly or unwillingly fulfill their obligations to society and, by that fact, are continually besieged with more taxes. Alongside them, there is a wonderful hybrid; there is a world of exceptions, privileges and exemptions. Special tax regimes hide large incomes and low taxes. Many simply do not pay any tax and then get offended when a general VAT is proposed.
- Teachers illustrate another of our exceptional hybrids: recently, the Ministry of Education introduced a system to hire based on a contest. Many of the people who applied for the new positions are teachers already at work who want a second “plaza” (tenured position), as well as aspiring teachers. The shocking thing is that the overwhelming majority of those already teaching who completed the exam failed and, yet, maintain their other, existing, position. Meanwhile, new applicants must pass the exam or remain unemployed. First and second class citizens.
- The business world is made of two main groups: those subject to competition and those protected and sheltered. The former have had to change their ways to survive, while the second has become an burden on everyone else, preventing progress. Overall, industrial goods are subject to competition but not the services or goods produced by the government. How many companies have closed from the excessive costs imposed by the government on the activities and services on which their survival depends?
- In the legislature we have two classes of congressmen and senators: those who are elected and those who are appointed. None represents the citizenry and, in our extremely peculiar idiosyncrasy, all owe their jobs to the party or governor who appoints them and not to the voting citizen.
- Women live in a world of rules defined in an era when it was common for them to stay at home but the reality of their daily lives is one of hardship. However, virtually no public service is designed to fit their needs: schools, health services and transportation function as if women were equal to men in their daily responsibilities.
- Although there are many reasons to be proud that there is greater transparency in public service, it is now exceedingly clear we still have opaque unions, state and local governments as well as the legislative and judicial branches of power.
- Public safety has demanded that the army gets involved in activities and responsibilities that are not part of their role and for which they were not trained. However, even with the backlash that their involvement has brought about, we still lack a modern police force able to replace the army. There is nothing more pathetic than the reluctance of governors to transform this fundamental aspect of their responsibility.
- State governors enjoy the great privilege of not being accountable to anyone, least of all to their local constituents. Instead of raising taxes in their home states, they prefer to press the federal government and squeeze Congress to raise their budget. Perhaps the biggest difference with Brazil is that in that country, they are able to raise a sum several times higher in property taxes than ours as a percentage of the GNP. Without accountability to citizens, spending is nothing more than an instrument of power and personal advancement. Mexico does not have a centralized or a federal system, but quite the opposite.
- The contrast between the federal electoral authorities (which, despite the 2007 Reform remain absolutely professional and neutral) and the state electoral institutes, almost all appointed by governors and their subordinates is quite clear. We have democracy in plots.
- Maybe there isn’t a more pernicious hybrid than the one that characterizes our “mixed” economy where there is never any clarity regarding what is private and what is public, who appropriates the benefits of government spending and the benefits of the energy monsters, all at the expense of jobs and wealth that could create a truly competitive economy. Dysfunctional hybrids to serve particular interests.
Instead of general rules, egalitarian institutions and the realm of impartial laws, what we have instead is a world of patches that never fit together well. Some things work and some do not, but nobody seems to care. Hybrids allow two incompatible worlds to co-exist side by side: the abiding citizen who by conviction or because she has no choice and another one enjoying the exceptions that allow them to live in a world of impunity. A system of hybrids that preserves halftones and patronage, corruption and protection for a few while requiring the opposite for the majority, causes half efforts and inconsistent commitments that undermine the essential factor that drives any society: trust.
Many of our problems begin with this peculiar blend of responsibilities that no one assumes and that are the essence of the privilege and inequality that characterize the country. Originally, the current deadlock stems from the collusion of interests that enable these hybrids to be the norm rather than the exception.