Despite widespread opinion to the contrary, Mexico is becoming a middle-class society, largely because it is much of the population. The consolidation of this sector is perhaps the track important for the future development of the country and the most significant historical event of recent decades.
The middle class is the essence of policy development and provides stability to a nation. Even taking into account the recent economic downturn, which temporarily halted the progress Mexico has experienced a tangible progress in strengthening the middle class.
While there is a unique insight into what is, no doubt a significant part of the population feels the middle class and wants to protect the condition that it cost so much effort to achieve. This fact, have a sense of ownership, membership and right to preserve it, was certainly a defining factor in the presidential election of 2006 and will continue to play as a factor in future elections.
The concept of middle class is difficult to define, but that does not mean they do not exist or does not involve political implications, economic and social. Perhaps because of the difficulty in arriving at an unambiguous definition, pollsters classify a person as a member of the middle class based on their sense of belonging, their attitudes and outlook on life.
There are various indicators that are evidence of the transformation experienced by Mexico into a mainstream middle-class society: traffic in cities and queues at the tolls are perhaps the most obvious, but many and various others also show: the type of employment, the sale of houses, education of children, the proportion of women in the workforce employment, quality of housing, purchase insurance on future events and uncertainties, the type of hospitals, cinemas, tourism, universities, etc..
Certainly, the growth of the middle class does not negate the country's social problems or poverty or marginalization that characterizes a large number of Mexicans, but it demonstrates a profound change in the desirable direction: toward a higher level of development . Change happens despite what many politicians and analysts and political paralysis endemic. The growth of the middle class is equivalent to reducing poverty for those segments of the population who leave.
The big question for the country's future is how to create a framework to accelerate the transformation of Mexican society to consolidate the achievements of the emerging middle-class majority, not hinder the process and, better yet, drive it to that a growing number of families that are now under this definition will join her. In the context of severe economic crisis, the question is also how to avoid a reversal of progress achieved without taking steps that, in a mood to avoid setting, complete by decomposing the secular process of poverty reduction.
The work of governments at all three levels should strive to increase productivity and making available the benefits of the development (even in rural areas). The implications are immeasurable and will, among its many consequences, the politicians and their parties to change their approach to public life and the way they behave.
What is middle class?
The concept of middle class is difficult to establish and complex to grasp, but no less real is no longer and, above all, politically relevant. From a Marxist perspective, which links the definition of social class to the production process (owners of means of production from workers), the notion of "middle class" is largely repulsive. Still, virtually all modern societies, and all developed, have a common feature of middle class itself: most of those who have sufficient income up to live in the urban environment and want to improve their position consistently.
Although there are many definitions of middle class, all provide for the pursuit of education as a means of overcoming and social mobility, employment mainly in the services sector, an interest in culture, film and other arts and entertainment, the property or rent a house or apartment as a basis for family development, construction of a second floor, the possession of an automobile or other material satisfactions. The same is true of television, internet and now, virtual social networks. In fact, the extent to which progress in the knowledge era, where the main source of development comes from the creative capacity-building, development opportunities of a growing number of middle class people.
is essentially a life family in a predominantly urban context. However, there is no obvious reason to exclude the possibility that the rural sector be transformed in this direction, particularly the revolution in communications, transport and the benefits that migration brings, particularly through remittances .
Another indicator of the middle class is a positive vision of the world, the willingness to enjoy life beyond the everyday, the expectation of economic improvement and a systematic perception of education as an imperative for development children. The search for better schools is a clear example of the values \u200b\u200bthat encourage this group and explains the dramatic growth of schools in low (or lower) cost to meet that demand. To the extent that parents associate education with success in life, sowing the seeds of a stay in the middle and bet on systematic progress.
To meet this demand, and bottlenecks to the expansion of public education, the number of private institutions dedicated to providing educational services has increased from 33 000 495, according to the 1999 Economic Census, to 44 000 780 affordable units in the Census of 2009, representing growth of 34% and in the presence of a smaller potential number of students for change population. In terms of employed persons in charge of providing such services has been increased by 81% from 362 000 653 000 15 people to 736 people, respectively. This phenomenon is widespread and occurs in communities that often are not perceived as middle class expanded.
Interestingly, a proportion not less than private educational establishments opt for foreign names that carry a connotation to attract aspirational middle-class students. For example, the 905 private schools registered basic and intermediate education in 2009 at the Iztapalapa (Mexico City), 437 have foreign names, place names in other languages \u200b\u200bor concerning other countries.1 is noteworthy that, in the classification of schools about the results Liaison in Iztapalapa is 17 (all private) are in the top 5% of the distribution nacional.2
middle class, participation and development
Another feature of the middle class is the dual role it can play in political stability and development revolution. One of the great paradoxes of poverty is that those who experience it often does not see risks in the economic or political changes abrupt. Not so individuals and families who have already attained a position minimally economically well off and tend to become a pillar of stability, rejecting, for better or for worse, any change that threatens.
That is, the middle classes tend to suffer the consequences of revolution and instability of any kind and, therefore, constitute a fundamental pillar of democracy and the gradual changes. Revolutions destroy families, undermine its revenues and undermine their ability to consume. In Mexico, the middle class has experienced more than any other, the consequences of financial crises. It is no coincidence that his political attitude is inclined to be conservative and reject any alternative that could affect their safety.
No there is only one way to participate in politics, but there is no doubt that democracy now tied, naturally, with the characteristics of the middle class. It has access to information technologies have brought changes in attitudes, a sense of liberation and, therefore, an unwillingness to follow guidelines and political leaders whose strength lies in the lack of information and knowledge.
change a person as part of a mass movement to a person who feels master of its own politicization has the potential to transform society. It is a slow, but perceptible, which eventually comes to modify the development political. When that happens, liberal deliberative democracy begins to be possible. In the end, the strengthening of a middle-class society not only means a new stage of stability, but the opportunity for people to develop themselves and in the process, release political.
The change in policy preferences in recent years is also a symptom of the growing middle class, the decline of corporatism and city growth: the number of independent voters, ie those who say they do not identify with any party, has gone from 29% in 1989 to almost 40% in 2007.3 This, coupled with the high volatility of these voters, talks about how the Mexican responds to stimuli that represent the parties. And, feeling that their preferred party no longer represents it, is ready to leave, either by another party or none.
As the main economic challenge is the increase in productivity and this requires abandoning low-value-generating activities and migrate to those more profitable, successful companies depend on the growing middle class opts for stability as a precondition for change rather than stability to preserve the status quo. The key, of course, in education and ongoing training to successfully face natural fear of change. So prompted the middle class a certain amount of schizophrenia: a promoter of political stability, macroeconomic and legal, but only to allow the change, the revolution in productivity, creativity, value creation, the discovery of key comparative advantages.
In fact, development is the result of a volitional process that reaches its best expression in a democracy. Of course, many in Asia believe that democracy is not necessary for development, and even that may be an obstacle. If the successful future of Mexico is given in fact, be a powerful example of modernization through the expansion of the middle class and citizen participation. Unfortunately, it is not clear or certain that the political and economic interests that benefit from the status quo for the release of the talents of the average Mexican to achieve genuine development. Vested
merit versus
In Mexico, members of the middle class can have income from a few minimum wages home to several dozen of the same indicator. Ie, they may be in the highest decile on the scale of national income or spend several deciles below. Two families residing in the same colony, with similar incomes can have dramatic differences in their spending capacity depending on the number of children born to each of them. For these reasons, many scholars prefer the term "middle class" in the plural, to denote that the term diversity entails.
any case, the fact is that the Mexican middle class is composed of very different income strata and a variety of evidence according to its origin, type of employment and membership. Like there are families whose origins are from generations of urban middle class that families whose history goes back to the migration from the countryside. These factors have a strong impact on the way in which they operate, receive and vote the members of the middle class. This subgroup within the same segment population that, over time, tend to assimilate to become what is commonly known as "middle class."
Historically, two key sources of development of the Mexican middle class were the bureaucracy and the unions. The bureaucrats were able to secure income that gradually led them to be placed in a comfortable and even privileged status. The same happened to members of powerful labor unions in public enterprises, large private companies and parastatals, whose source of employment was essentially immune to economic changes. In general, members of the middle class that originated in these areas developed a strong dependence on the government and are the backbone of support rights.
Think of the sale of places in institutions such as Pemex, Luz y Fuerza del Centro-now-defunct Federal Power Commission or the Secretariat of Public Education, to identify a worldview typical of this social group, same as farm the protection of privileges that in many cases, are transferred from one generation to another, as well as corporatism and profiteering.
For strategic reasons the middle class corporatism often associated with flying a proletarian discourse, not so much to defend or promote the rights of the poor but to preserve their privileged status.
The other major source of Mexico's middle class is the opposite: people who have been toiling in the productive life, migrants, members of the informal economy are not appropriated by the foreign and budding entrepreneurs who are dedicated to improving in a systematic but random, not through the operation of assigned privileges, but taking risks everyday. It is this group of society that plays it every day, seeking business opportunities, which migrates like Cancun because there is much work that is going to Chicago in search of better opportunity. These people tend to develop a work ethic, seeking opportunities for their families, understand the competition as inherent to their existence and are highly critical of the government and taxes.
Remittances have become a source of improvement not only economic but also social mobility. Families who have a family income outside of Mexico tend to save and improve their levels of consumption. Somehow, the mere fact of considering the option to emigrate, to leave behind their social and geographical, makes aspirational or real members of the middle class. Amartya Sen in Development as Freedom4 argues that development is achieved when you have the freedom to choose, even within limits, the course to follow.
The transformation to a middle-class society
economic and financial stability (especially the absence of episodes of widespread destruction of wealth) and the sharp decline in the fertility rate in recent years have been key the development of this sector of society.
Moreover, trade liberalization and NAFTA reduced the prices of many goods for Mexican families, while it has increased the quality, variety and services associated with the goods consumed in the country. The phenomenon Walmart, for example, has transformed the consumption basket of the population, reducing price of food, clothing and footwear. Came hand in hand in the mortgage market liberalization and the explosion of consumer credit (auto, credit cards, department stores). Low cost flights opened this means of transportation for thousands of people who previously traveled by bus, the same is true for universities such as UVM, UNITEC and TEC Goals, institutions dealing with care for this population. The success of these products and services aimed at the middle class, is evidence that economic stability is more important than many politicians involved.
The most important factor, however, that privatization and development opportunities, is the reduction in family size, due to lower fertility rates. Today the fertility rate reached 2.5 children per mother only fertile when the sixties came to be 7.3. The lower number is a cause and consequence of the expansion of the middle class. The main driver for reducing the migration from the countryside to the cities, coupled with the growing participation of women in the labor market. By reducing the number of descendants becomes necessary to increase the average productivity of the children and create incentives to invest in them time and resources for education, health and professional development.
Mexicans often see the future with fear and imagine disasters and difficulties: years of crisis and bad governments, or at least governments unable or insufficient, have resulted in a fatality and a grim view of future, in the impossibility of progress, "no way." The interesting thing is that the objective reality contradicts this set of perceptions: today it is undeniable the possibility of individual and family progress, either through the accumulation of human capital, participation in business activities, including informal, and migration.
If instead of looking forward with apprehension, observe society and accept their own progress, the corollary would be very different: although errors and problems, doubts and complaints, the reality is very significant changes in the lives of many Mexicans rarely recognized, the country has undergone profound changes in virtually all of its structures and characteristics.
addition to traditional measures of poverty and income distribution, there are many ways to confirm, more intuitive, a significant but insufficient progress and expansion of the middle class. We present here some illustrative indicators.
Life expectancy at birth is certainly the clearest and has increased dramatically in recent decades: the average Mexican has managed to raise their life expectancy by approximately four years in ten. Women born in 1990 had hoped to live for 74 years and in 2009 approached 78, while men had reason to expect to live 68 years, while for 2009 this figure had risen to 73.
longest
addition, Mexicans spend more years in their own education. In the last decades has doubled the number of years of schooling (to 8.3 years), while it tripled university coverage.
However, although Mexico has made substantial improvements in terms of educational coverage, still lags behind to other countries and especially about their own needs. It is patently clear that the Mexican educational system is far from being good and providing the educational needs of families and the economy for accelerated growth. So find multiple assessments.
However, the quantity and quality of education received today is far higher than previous generations received. It is perhaps for this reason that a majority of parents consider that the level of education their children receive is not bad, using as parameter propio.5 his
Another aspect that shows the transition to a predominantly middle class participation of women in the workforce. Mexico has grown into a country with middle-income population, in part thanks to the contribution of women to family income.
Perhaps more than any other indicator, the growth of the middle class can be seen in the habits of the population: that increase as income increases the consumption of a basket of goods and services previously unavailable. For example, protein intake has increased, an indication that Mexican society is having extra income to allow you additional pleasures.
Thus, the per capita meat consumption increased by 82%, 34 kg in 1990 to 62 kg in 2005. It is worth remembering that not long ago it was unthinkable that most Mexicans would eat meat regularly, or that nobody cared for the timely supply, varied and affordable dairy products. In the eighties the government painted walls in the cities with the recommendation to the public that "if the milk is low, the child plays him, now this post seems strange and anachronistic.
Unfortunately, these changes in consumption patterns are not free. In these same years, the country has gone from being a society with malnutrition in the population average one in which obesity has become a serious problem and public health concern.
Although some of these data shows disturbing patterns, such as those relating to obesity and its health implications, they illustrate the fact that Mexican society is similar to the developed even in this phenomenon and the transition epidemiological why chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, cancers) have replaced infectious diseases as the leading cause of death and population.
Housing is another area that has experienced significant improvements. A growing portion of the population has its own home, which is its main asset familiar. In the last ten years have built seven million homes, which compares with 26.7 million households reported Income Expenditure Survey of Households, 2008. Decent housing, owned or rented, leads to other changes: nuclear families tend to develop their own patterns of life, independent of those that characterize the extended families in which several generations live under one roof.
housing quality has improved so much in size and built-in services, although undoubtedly there is still much room for improvement. In 1960 80% of homes had two rooms or less and only 20% of basic sanitation facilities like toilets. In 2010 60% of the homes have three or more bedrooms, while 90% have toilets. Another interesting phenomenon is the growth of secondary residences social interest among the population: some that are rented and other used the weekend. It is estimated that in Morelos and Guerrero about a third of social housing are secondary and are used for, long weekends and holidays.
The increasing penetration of modern business means not only more buying power of a large segment of the population, but changes in lifestyle and buying patterns. The increase in this trade means greater availability of consumer satisfactions, better quality, competitive prices, an increase in the use of electronic payment and financial penetration. The presence of modern commercial establishments throughout the country reflects the widespread participation of the middle class is not just a phenomenon of major cities, but most urban areas. This growth also seems to contradict the constant complaint of many employers that there is no domestic market.
The same is true of the functions in movie theaters, cell phone use, internet, travel (65% of people travel out of town at least once a year), the number of passports and many other examples. Perhaps
there is no concept more important for the development of the middle class that social mobility. A society whose economy favors the advancement of people in jobs, the formation of new companies and, in short, the material improvement of the families, is a company that achieves the promotion or mobility of their inhabitants in the social scale .
social mobility is not simply the movement of people towards a better economic position in the course of its life. The possibility of social mobility is the product of individual effort and family, but can also occur as a result of government's fiscal strategy aimed at redistributing wealth. In both cases in a general improvement of economic situation.
inequality itself does not restrict social mobility, but reflects the lack of permeability. According to the Social Mobility Survey ESRU 2006, Mexico is a country with little social mobility, especially at the ends. Radical movements, ie those who spend the poorest quintile to the richest and vice versa are extremely rare in Mexico. In the middle levels the situation is more hopeful. 17 out of 100 people whose parents belonged to quintile three and 13% of those whose parents belonged to quintile four managed to climb to the richest quintile of the population.
One aspect related to the aspiration of social mobility is the Mexican name given by their children. The National Population Register publishes the most popular names according to birth certificates registered in the country. For example, in the list of the 50 most popular girl and boy, 2008, we can see the selection of names for the middle class, aspirational and a significant number of them in other languages, particularly English. Among them are Vanessa (place 18), Elizabeth (place 24), Evelyn (28), Abigail (30), Montserrat (33), Lizbeth (37), Ana Karen (38), Marely (47), Jacquelin (48 ) and Jacqueline (49). For boys the most popular names not Castilianized are: Alexander (place 15), Jonathan (29), Alexis (32), Kevin (35), Cristian (36), Bryan (38) 6
unresolved
The Mexican middle class Unlike many of their international counterparts in a fundamental way. Here middle-class families have achieved that status thanks to all the revenue that accrues in a family, not only through an individual or couple's income typically high that characterizes the international middle class.
Progress has been real and it is so important to shore up the sources of economic stability that allowed the growth of this segment of the population, but above all to transform the structure of the Mexican economy in order to achieve high economic growth rates which, in turn, accelerate the development and consolidation of Mexico as a middle-class society. The causality is bidirectional: to increase the middle class is essential to growth, but sustained growth and high demand that development requires a broad middle class. This bidirectionality explains the possibility of multiple equilibria: one, the progress impossible under the trap of development and the country of "no way", with little growth and low middle class and another tall, the development, which growth and middle-class feedback and self-accelerating.
economic stability and growth of the middle class due mainly to four factors mentioned above: the first is the decline in fertility rates and reducing the dependency ratio of children aged workforce.
The second refers to a strategy explicitly oriented macroeconomic stability, ie, a modest fiscal deficit and monetary policy dedicated to fighting inflation. It is no coincidence that the common denominator of the two periods of greatest growth of the middle class (the fifties and sixties of last century and the second half of the nineties and the present) is precisely the financial and economic stability, though the rate of economic growth has not been spectacular.
Thirdly, the success is due to economic liberalization and the elimination of barriers to investment and trade. Of course, these measures were not sufficient to achieve high economic growth rates, but you can not dismiss its importance and significance to re-key goods and services affordable for the middle class.
The fourth is the significant expansion of education and health services and programs for poverty reduction.
In this way, think of the consolidation of a middle-class society means understanding the dynamics of transformation who has experienced the value-added production and, above all, how to produce in the world over recent decades. Enhance involves four factors: the demographic advantage is ephemeral, maintaining macroeconomic stability to prevent recurrent crises that destroy wealth, depth and competition open to all sectors of the economy and revolutionize the education system and the health sector them to match citizens' expectations.
On the occasion of the bicentennial of Independence may wonder if Mexico reaches the age of its 200 years. The answer lies in the ability to become a middle-class country. The conditions in 2010 are much better than in 1810 or 1910 thanks to democracy (although imperfect), most competitive economy (although monopolized sectors that serve as ballast), a demographic that represents a unique opportunity for the authentic development (although wasted) and, without doubt, a mostly middle class people (although many analysts and politicians dismissed).
you, your thoughts? Has grown the middle class? What indicators used to illustrate? Express your opinion in www.clasemediamexico.wordpress.com
References
Jennifer Wheary, "The Global Middle Class is Here: Now What? "In World Policy Journal, vol. 26, no. 4, Winter 2009/10, pp. 75-83.
Méndez, ML, "Middle Class in the Neoliberal Age Identities: Tensions Between Authenticities Contested," in The Sociological Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2008, pp. 220-237. n
Luis Rubio. President of the Center for Development Research AC Author of The riddle of legitimacy: For an effective democracy in a legal environment and development.
Luis de la Calle. Partner at De la Calle, Madrazo, Mancera SC.
Thanks to Manuel Aragon and Maria Cristina Capelo for their assistance in conducting this project.
1 Among others: John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Queen Mary, Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, Alfred North Whitehead, Henry Wallon, Catherin Landerth, Andree Lapierre, WA Friedrich Froebel, Oliver Sheldon, Vincent W. Van Gogh, Karl Marx, Matthew Lipman, Michel Tournier, Excel Kids, Freedom, Holding Hands, Cypress Garden, New Friends, Bonsai, Wisdom Institute, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Yellow Stone and Vancouver.
2 See www.comparatuescuela.org
portal
3 Moreno, Alejandro, The electoral choice: Voters, parties and democracy in Mexico, Miguel Angel Porrua, Mexico, 2009.
4 Random House, New York, 1999.
5 See, For example, survey Reform May 2008.
6 See
http://www.babycenter.com.mx/pregnancy/nombres/nombres_mas_populares_2008_mexico/
This article was published in NEXUS:
http://www.nexos.com.mx/? P = leerarticulo & article = 73171
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