Reaction to Calderón's Proposal

Leo Zuckermann says that given the political bottlenecks that choke off any serious attempt to deal with Mexico's most intractible problems, a political reform that unclogs the system would be Calderón's (or that of any president who pulls it off) greatest legacy. Still, he's not celebrating yet:

Calderón's decision to push political reform aimed at strengthening government so that it can confront powerful interest groups turns out to be very correct. Furthermore, if the president wants to do so, he doesn't have a whole lot of time because any political reform will become harder to pass as the 2012 election approaches.

The only thing I fear is that, as has been the story with this administration, the president sends good proposals to Congress, which the opposition than shaves down and we end up with a result contrary to the original proposal.

You'd think that with Manlio Fabio Beltrones' longtime interest in political reform (and his plan has a lot in common with Calderón proposal), the president would have a pretty good chance of getting a significant bill passed.

Whatever the case, it still remains to be seen how much reform will help. The incentives in Mexico's political system are totally screwed up, and there is far too much distance between a pol's performance in office and his future prospects, and this reform should address those problems. But as far as attacking special interests, other than a lack of will, there was nothing stopping Mexico's politicians from doing so before. Calderón's reform is a good idea, but I don't think it will necessarily bring about the necessary reserve of will to attack Mexico's monopolies and reform its oil industry (to take but two examples). At least, it won't do so overnight.