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Usos y Costumbres and Postelectoral Conflicts in Oaxaca, Mexico, 1995-2004: An Empirical and Normative Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Todd A. Eisenstadt
Todd A. Eisenstadt*
Affiliation:
American University
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Abstract

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This article evaluates postelector al conflicts in Mexico’s Oaxaca state before and after the state government legally recognized usos y costumbres—local leader selection via traditional practices (rather than parties and secret ballots). Assessing usos y costumbres within the normative debate between multiculturalists and pluralists on incorporation of ethnic minorities, the article compares the level of postelectoral conflict in usos y costumbres and non-usos y costumbres municipalities. It argues that since such conflicts have increased in Oaxaca over the last decade while simultaneously diminishing dramatically in Mexico’s other 31 states, the cause is probably unique to Oaxaca. Conflict may be at least partially attributed to perverse implementation incentives created by the law’s provocation of conflicts requiring mediation (rather than judicial verdicts). While further research is needed to test normative claims that usos y costumbres increase governing institutions’ credibility and foster positive group identities, the article concludes that while the customary practices “experiment” has failed at least by one criterion, it may warrant reconsideration if customary elections can be viewed as a set of evolving, instrumental processes, rather than as fixed, static, and essentialist conditions.

Resumo

Resumo

Este artículo compara los conflictos postelector ales en el estado mexicano de Oaxaca antes y después del reconocimiento legal de “usos y costumbres,” es decir, de la selección de dirigentes locales a través de prácticas tradicionales, a oposición de prácticas basadas en partidos políticos y voto secreto. Analizando los usos y costumbres dentro del debate normativo que multicul- turalistas y pluralistas han sostenido sobre la incorporación de minorías étnicas, el artículo compara el nivel de conflictividad en municipios donde se ejerce la práctica de usos y costumbres, y en municipios donde no se ejerce. En este trabajo se argumenta que, dado que los conflictos postelectorales han aumentado en Oaxaca durante la última década, y han disminuido dramáticamente en los otros 31 estados de México, las causas del aumento de conflictividad se encuentran exclusivamente en Oaxaca. La conflictividad puede ser atribuida, al menos parcialmente, a la implementación perversa de incentivos que motivan conflictos que requieren mediación (y no conflictos que pueden ser solucionados por veredictos jurídicos). Sostengo que es necesaria más investigación para poder comprobar normativamente que los usos y costumbres aumentan la credibilidad de las instituciones gubernamentales y fortalecen las identidades colectivas. Este artículo concluye que, aunque el éxito de los usos y costumbres ha sido limitado, al menos bajo el criterio de conflictividad, posiblemente, merezca la pena reconsiderarlo si se observan a las elecciones consuetudinarias como procesos instrumentalistas en evolución, y no como condiciones estáticas y esencialistas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 2007 , pp. 52 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

1.

The author thanks Moisés Jaime Bailón Corres, David Recondo, and Viridiana Ríos Contreras and several anonymous reviewers for comments and acknowledges research support from a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Higher Education and Development Program grant and American University’s School of Public Affairs (SPA). The conclusions reached and any errors are the author’s alone.

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