Mexico Under Fox (review)
At the halfway mark in the six year term of Mexican President, Vicente Fox, coeditors Luis Rubio and Susan Kaufman Purcell assembled a group of experts well equipped to assess the performance of the Fox regime and the national and international standing of the President himself. Luis Rubio sets the tone for the volume with an opening chapter focused on the process of democratization, with particular emphasis on institution building, while Edna Jaime addresses the ambitious goals and largely disappointing results of Fox's economic program, and Juan Pardinas examines Fox's mixed record in the fight to raise the standard of living of the Mexican poor. However, a full half of the book is devoted to the examination of Mexico's foreign relations. In three chapters contributed by Andres Rozenthal, Luis Carlos Ugalde, and Susan Kaufman Purcell, knowledgeable commentators reflect on the Fox government's global and regional foreign policy initiatives and failures with particular emphasis on Mexico's relations with the United States.