Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Struggle for Accountability in Mexico: Explaining Uneven Political Development

近年来，发展中国家涌现出许多腐败控制机构、自治选举机构和中央银行、独立审计机构、人权监察员和“检察官”，试图在使用国家权力时提供纪律和回应。 与发达国家的一些对应机构一样，这些新的独立的、支持问责的机构中有许多往往机构业绩不佳。 如何解释负责监管和检查滥用国家权力的不同政府机构所面临的问题类型的程度和差异？ 本文旨在通过比较和对比墨西哥三个独立机构的历史、结构和运作来探讨这些问题：联邦选举机构（IFE）、国家人权委员会（CNDH）和上级联邦审计员（ASF）。 这个项目提出了两个假设。 首先，“破坏”假说认为，墨西哥独裁联盟对一个机构的成立和改革的权力越大，它的设计缺陷就越多，这将对其机构绩效产生负面影响。 第二，“扎根的专业精神”假设认为，独立机构在择优招聘（高级和低级官员）、得到社会强大部门的信任和积极支持、在政府内部拥有强大的机构地位时表现更好。为了验证这些假设，调查员将在墨西哥花12个月的时间进行访谈和查阅档案材料。这项研究的更广泛影响将通过其分布，其促进美国和墨西哥研究人员之间合作的潜力，以及对社会科学培训和基础设施的贡献来实现。 研究结果将以四种方式传播：（1）将纳入研究所和共同研究所在加州大学圣克鲁斯教授的拉丁美洲和墨西哥政治变革课程的讲座和阅读作业中;（2）将纳入共同研究所就发展中国家支持问责制的国家改革开展的咨询工作中;（3）它将在专业会议和会议上提出;（4）它将用于撰写将提交给政治社会学领域领先期刊和出版商的文章。 这项研究还将通过促进跨境学术网络来加强研究和教育的基础设施，因为co-PI将在墨西哥最重要的研究机构之一（经济学研究和教学中心（锡德））进行实地考察，这将使他能够在UC系统和墨西哥研究机构之间建立重要联系。

In recent years, numerous corruption control agencies, autonomous electoral institutes and central banks, independent auditing agencies, human rights Ombudsmen, and "public prosecutors" have sprung up throughout the developing world in an attempt to provide discipline and responsiveness in the use of state power. Like some of their counterparts in the developed world, many of these new independent pro-accountability agencies often are characterized by poor institutional performance. What explains the level and variation in the types of problems faced by different government agencies tasked with regulating and inspecting abuses of state power? This dissertation looks to explore these questions by comparing and contrasting the history, structure and functioning of three independent agencies in Mexico: the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Superior Federal Auditor (ASF). This project poses two hypotheses. First, the "sabotage" hypothesis argues that the more power the Mexican authoritarian coalition has over an agency's founding and reform, the more design flaws it has that will negatively affect its institutional performance. Second, the "grounded professionalism" hypothesis argues that independent agencies perform better when they have meritocratic recruitment (for both high and low-level officials), are trusted and actively supported by powerful sectors of society, and have a strong institutional location within government. In order to test these hypotheses the investigator will spend twelve months in Mexico conducting interviews and consulting archival materials. The broader impact of this research will be achieved through its distribution, its potential to promote collaboration between US and Mexican researchers, and its contribution to social science training and infrastructure. The study's findings will be disseminated in four ways: (1) It will be incorporated into the lectures and reading assignments for the classes on political change in Latin America and Mexico that both the PI and the CO-PI teach at UC Santa Cruz; (2) It will be incorporated into the consulting work that the Co-PI conducts on pro-accountability state reform in the developing world; (3) It will be presented at professional meetings and conferences; (4) It will be used to write articles that will be submitted to leading journals and publishers in the field of Political Sociology. This research will also enhance the infrastructure for research and education by facilitating cross-border scholarly networks since the co-PI will be housed at one the most important research institutes in Mexico (the Center for Economics Research and Teaching (CIDE)) during his fieldwork which will allow him to establish important links between the UC system and the Mexican research establishment.