Alejandra Salas-Porras

Changing the bases of political support in Mexico: pro-business networks and the market reform agenda1

Abstract This article argues that in the past 25 years Mexican pro-business networks gradually engaged, mobilised and strengthened a large number of business associations, charitable, religious and right-wing political institutions, conservative and libertarian intellectuals and leaders in order to advance a market reform agenda and change the bases of political support. It follows how the agenda is constructed and transformed throughout the period and gauges the extent to which pro-business networks are successful in the objectives pursued.

Think Tanks and Global Politics: Key Spaces in the Structure of Power

The aim of this book is to go beyond the largely descriptive accounts of think tanks that currently dominate the literature. This means it is necessary to look analytically at the place in society occupied by think tanks, together with their control of global resources, both in the economic and political policy fields, and their inroads into structures of power. To advance in this direction, the following questions are addressed: How have think tanks reached positions of power? Who funds and controls them and for what purpose? How is policy-making knowledge created? How are new policy ideas propagated and validated? This means looking at intrinsic connections between think tanks and power—either coercive or consensual—and how these organizations are also mechanisms whereby elites construct, exercise and challenge power, particularly through knowledge production, concentration, and mobilization.

Korean Companies in Mexico: Business Practices and National Identity

This article examines certain characteristics of Korean investment in Mexico. It provides an analytical framework to study the business practices of Korean companies and the influence of Korean national identity on the business linkages abroad. Special attention is given to the linkages that Korean companies (commercial subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, producers, and maquiladoras) maintain with their parent companies and/or with other Korean-origin firms, with a focus on two specific issues: control and decision making within the firm and the preference for doing business with Koreans.

American think tank networks and expert debates around the Global Financial Crisis: Keynesian insurgents against austerity defenders

Abstract This article applies social network analysis and a Bourdieu-inspired understanding of think tanks to a particular historical period, the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009, when the neoliberal policy consensus was fractured and struggles to replace it by Keynesian policies ensued. The analysis finds that think tank and expert networks have played a key role in mobilising policy ideas, contesting or defending policy discourses. Experts advanced their proposals for policy changes in all those fields of power where they have gained a foothold. However, no consensus has been reached on monetary and fiscal policies, and the policy communities remain divided in these domains.

Think Tank Networks in Mexico: How They Shape Public Policy and Dominant Discourses

Neoliberal strategies implemented in Mexico from the 1980s onward have rolled back the frontiers of the state from many different economic and social spheres. As a consequence, planning research, monitoring, and evaluation tasks that formerly were undertaken in house by the state are increasingly being outsourced to think tanks, opening many points of access and pressure, both in the executive and legislative apparatus. The field of think tanks becomes more powerful within the national structure of power as the organizations involved in the field weave an increasingly dense network, and as the production and legitimation of policy knowledge and policy discourse are controlled by a smaller group of experts, political intermediaries, and large corporate leaders who have become key links connecting the most influential elites in the region.