New models of social participation into an authoritarian surrounding: Mass media, technology and democratization within the regional societies in Mexico
Luis Miguel RIONDA
Antropologo Social, Universidad de Guanajuato / CITIDEP-Mexico.
Apdo. Postal (P.O.Box) 479, 36000 Guanajuato, Gto. Mexico. E-mail: riondal@quijote.ugto.mx. http://www.angelfire.com/ri/rionda/
The decade of the 80's was characterized by the accelerated political changes within the authoritarian latin-american societies, specially Mexico. In paralel, new information technologies and growing communication media contributed to built a new citizen identity, that abandoned the tightness of the regional ideology, and mounted over the globalized wagon of that decade' s democratization. Mexico arrived a little late and reluctantly to this process, in comparation to other latin-american societies, nevertheless almost to the same time that the eastern european countries. The mexican electoral rebellion started at the municipal level, but was clearly defined at the 1988 federal elections, that meaned the beginning of the end of the authoritarian and centralized regime of the mexican post-revolucionary era. In the 904s this tendency have deeped towards a more open and participative society, supported by a wider access to global information and democratic models, particularly those essayed at the east-european and latin-american countries. In apparent contrast, new regional consciousness are defined, and the democratization is accompanied by a bigger heterogeneity into the regional and local political experiences, in contraposition to the second authoritarian ingredient: the centralism.
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