IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v610y2007i1p182-200.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rethinking Civil Society in the Age of NAFTA: The Case of Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Jon Shefner

    (Interdisciplinary Program in Global Studies at the University of Tennessee)

Abstract

This article offers an analysis and critique of the concept of civil society and its relationship to neoliberalism as an economic and political project. The author argues that the high level of imprecision in the usage of civil society has enabled both opponents and advocates of neoliberal policies to claim it. We forget that civil society must be understood as a stratified body whose members occupy specific class positions and, therefore, contend for control of vital resources. The author's critique is largely based on the ignoring of class among those who study the intersection of neoliberalism and civil society. In the second part of this article, the author offers an illustration by focusing on Mexico's recent history of democratization in tandem with the application of neoliberal policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Jon Shefner, 2007. "Rethinking Civil Society in the Age of NAFTA: The Case of Mexico," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 610(1), pages 182-200, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:610:y:2007:i:1:p:182-200
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716206296797
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716206296797
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716206296797?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carr, Barry & Anzaldúa Montoya, Ricardo, 1986. "The Mexican Left, The Popular Movements, and the Politics of Austerity," University of California at San Diego, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies qt1nq463dq, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UC San Diego.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Patricia Fernández-Kelly & Douglas S. Massey, 2007. "Borders for Whom? The Role of NAFTA in Mexico-U.S. Migration," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 610(1), pages 98-118, March.
    2. Paul K. Gellert, 2007. "From Managed to Free(r) Markets: Transnational and Regional Governance of Asian Timber," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 610(1), pages 246-259, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dharam Ghai & Cynthia Hewitt de Alcántara, 1990. "The Crisis of the 1980s in Sub‐Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean: Economic Impact, Social Change and Political Implications," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 389-426, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:610:y:2007:i:1:p:182-200. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.