Decentralizing Mexico

David Agren has a piece in WPR about Mexico's increasingly decentralized government:

"What they did this time was take money out of entitlements such as Oportunidades [a conditional cash-transfer program for Mexico's poorest families] and turned it into pork-barrel spending," said Jeffrey Weldon, director of the political science department at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City. "It's inefficient, and a lot of money that [the governors] spend is for the promotion of the governorship."

That the powerful state governors walked away with increased federal funding reflects a long-term trend -- albeit one that has accelerated in recent years -- toward decentralization in Mexican politics. That has allowed governors, who enjoyed little autonomy during the years of one-party rule, to exert increasing influence over matters such as security, swelling budgets and the operation of political machines.