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A Review of "My Country: Insights to Understand and Change Mexico"

Eric L. Olson, Senior Associate at the Mexico institute, has reviewed Denise Dresser's book titled "My Country: Insights to Understand and Change Mexico". The review appears on page 10 of the recent issue of Americas Quarterly for the winter of 2012.

Despite boasting the second largest economy in Latin America, a noteworthy record of fiscal and economic management in the midst of global turmoil, and envious commercial ties to the United States, Mexico has failed to take its rightful place as a global powerhouse. Many observers wonder why Mexico has not achieved its true potential. What, for instance, has prevented Mexico from joining the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and—now—South Africa)?

In El país de uno: Reflexiones para entender y cambiar a México (My Country: Insights to Understand and Change Mexico), Denise Dresser concludes that Mexico has no one to blame but itself for its lackluster performance.

Dresser, a distinguished professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, columnist at Proceso magazine and editorial writer at Reforma, offers a sharp, unflinching and penetrating analysis of today’s Mexico that traces much of the problem to the failure to live up to expectations raised by the 2000 electoral defeat of the single-party state led by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party—PRI) for most of the previous century.

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About the Author

Eric L. Olson

Eric L. Olson

Global Fellow;
Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives, Seattle International Foundation
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Mexico Institute

The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute.   Read more

Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more