Transnational State Elites and the Neoliberal Project in Mexico

Abstract

This article explores the connection between the emergence of transnational state elites and the construction of a neoliberal project in Mexico. It argues that transnationalization of Mexican state elites was part of the process that led to the adoption of a neoliberal project since the 1980s and that it entailed an increasingly greater participation in global networks as well as a greater affinity with the standards, practices and norms of transnational organizations and global technocrats. The process was very dynamic, and it unfolded through a set of reforms that gradually, but steadily, transformed the political economy from a state-centered to a market-centered political economy. It launched a group of neoliberal reformers to transnational spaces following a combination of paths that included: (1) interlocking with regional and global corporate networks; (2) participation in regional and global think tanks and policy making bodies; (3) a long and active trajectory in international organizations; and (4) an academic and professional career allowing them to become global experts, acknowledged by the global corporate, financial and technocratic communities as themost qualified and trustworthy negotiators and intermediaries.