The new Mexican municipality and the state reform

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to analyze some of the core elements that characterize the current municipality in Mexico as a governmental entity as well as an apparatus of the public administration, while shaping an institutional profile which qualitatively distinguishes the contemporaneous municipality in the recent history. The focus of this debate is the Mexican municipalities because they are an excellent example of the key role that the local entity is increasingly playing in Latin America. In the last two decades, the Mexican municipality has been radically transformed in such way that its internal structure as well as the public functions and consequently its relationship with society and the whole intergovernmental framework, are reflecting a distinctive profile drawing up its new role in the Mexican local level.