Theories of Democratic Consolidation: A Mexico-Germany Comparison
2010). Furthermore, economic growth and GDP per capita is far behind
other Latin American countries, and while the North American Free
Trade Agreement has helped to increase trade, it has not increased income distribution (Camp 2011: 24). In addition, the drug wars that have
flared up in the north have further undermined confidence and participation in the political process, as well as being detrimental to the Mexican
economy (Shirk 2011: 3-27).
By comparison, German economic development was radically different.
Between 1950 and 1959, “GDP rose by nearly 8% per annum, faster than
anywhere else in Europe” (Eichengreen & Ritschl 2009: 191). According to the Modernization School, as referred to above, such economic
growth would have had a substantial impact on the public’s democratic
commitment. This has been lacking in Mexico; economic growth is an
area where the two nations exhibit radical differences.
This article finally proposes ‘public homogeneity’ as a cause for greater public commitment, something that becomes evident in the Mexican-German comparison. The indigenous populations of Mexico have
often felt marginalised within the Mexican state, leading to demands for
greater representation and the 1994 Zapatista uprising (Mattiace 1997:
32-71). While this sparked a strong growth in civil society organisations
(Gilbreth & Otero 2001: 7-26), these organisations have sought to address a problem that would never have arisen in Germany, a country with
a population of a similar cultural-ethnic background. In a system of equal
representation, public homogeneity arguably increases the legitimacy of
public institutions and eases a democratic transition. Linz and Stepan
make a similar point in arguing that “the greater the extent to which the
population of a state is composed of a plurality of national, linguistic,
religious, or cultural societies, the more complex politics becomes, since
an agreement on the fundamentals of a democracy will be more difficult”
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