Recentralization in Mexico: Reconfiguring the Center in Intergovernmental Relations

Understanding recentralization as a vertical phenomenon requires careful attention to the horizontal distribution of power at the national level. We articulate a theoretical argument that emphasizes the content of the coalition that enacts recentralization, demonstrating that politicians can return power to the center without empowering the president. In Mexico, the pluralism of the coalition that pushed for recentralization from 2007 to 2018 led to institutional designs that avoided investing authority in the presidency and opted instead to empower a series of autonomous constitutional bodies. The Mexican case thus points to a simple but powerful hypothesis to add to the literature on multilevel governance: the broader that coalitions that push for recentralization, the wider the set of actors who will be empowered at the center of the political system.