Think-Tank Networks in Mexico and How They Shape Economic and Political Reforms

Think tanks, broadly defined as public policy research organizations, have proliferated in North America. In the case of Mexico they are a relatively new phenomenon associated to the retreat of the state from the economy. However, they have rapidly built networks which play a key role in coordinating elites in the country in order to influence the public policies and strategies promoted throughout the past two decades, in particular those associated to NAFTA and the reforms this agreement has entailed. This paper analyzes the most important characteristics of Mexican TT, who controls them, the networks they have constructed in the past decade, the strategies they pursue to influence policy-making, the most influential ideological orientations and the extent to which the Mexican TT network is linked to a regional or international network. I argue that the landscape of TT has undergone a very profound transformation in the past years leading towards: (1) an increasingly greater presence of independent TT and private consultancy firms that undertake not only research on public policies, but executive and legislative lobbying too; (2) a more challenging advocacy role of academic and business TT that actively participate in the media and multiple forums to build consensus around, and acceptance of, the neoliberal reforms proposed; (3) the disappearance or fading away of former state research centers, particularly those promoting developmentalist tasks; (4) the concentration of state research in autonomous public agencies requiring very specialized information; and (5) new and more complex forms of collaboration and cooperation between business affiliated, academic and other TT, national and regional. Formal network analysis will be carried out in order to examine the patterns of connections between TT, their centrality and the tensions or divisions emerging from the ideologies they espouse or from the technocratic knowledge produced.