Introduction

By the end of the 20th century, policymaking in the Mexican federal government was aligned to the authoritarian, closed and hierarchical logic of the political regime and its bureaucratic apparatus (Cabrero, 2000). Over the span of a few years, pluralism and competition have transformed the political regime and its bureaucracy (Merino, 2003; Cejudo, 2008; Dussauge, 2008). The attributes of a democracy have started to transform the way policy analysis takes place in the federal government. Policy analysis is no longer the exclusive domain of the federal executive; it now takes place in a new context characterized by the activation of checks and balances, the introduction of legislative constraints on the executive's discretionary authority over the bureaucracy, the alternation of power in subnational governments, and the emergence of a more active civil society.

In this chapter, I analyze how policy analysis in the Mexican federal government has been shaped by recent political and administrative developments. After a brief analysis of policymaking under authoritarianism, I look at how policy analysis has changed according to the new nature of the political regime, with a relatively more open policymaking process and more legislative oversight. I analyze the development of a monitoring and evaluation system and show how it has introduced a results-oriented, evidence-based, problem-solving approach to policy analysis. I contrast this new approach with the normative and administrative framework guided by the logic of planning with which it has to compete.

Public policymaking at the end of the 20th century

The nature of public policy in any given country depends greatly on the characteristics of its political regime. Since government administrations have an interest in fulfilling specific agendas, they face incentives to modify institutions in order to make them more compatible with their political projects. Their ability to do so will depend on the resources and support they garner, as well as on how drastic their decisions are (Oszlak, 1986). In any case, bureaucratic structures and interrelations will always respond to regime changes, specifically depending on the interactions that follow every attempt to modify the state machinery.

Back in 2000, Enrique Cabrero noted that the Mexican government's policymaking process—shaped by the authoritarian nature of the political system—was essentially statist, since every policy (more governmental than public in nature) was rigidly controlled by the state, rather than serving as a bridge between government and citizens.