Mandate Ratification in Jalisco: Building citizenship and better governance?

Abstract

On Sunday, August 27, 2017, 25 municipalities (municipios) governed by the Political Citizen's Movement of Jalisco, organized a public consultation on mandate ratification; their objective was to ask citizens whether or not they agreed with the performance of their municipal presidents. Before, during and after the consultation, a wide debate was generated about the legal and political validity of this democratic exercise; various political actors, civil, and academic organizations expressed all kinds of arguments for and against the open consultation.

This paper reviews the legal and political bases of the consultation and reflects on whether this citizen participation exercise expands and promotes people participation, or if it is just an exercise around democratic simulation. The work focuses only on the four most populous and representative municipalities (municipios) of Guadalajara's Metropolitan Area: Guadalajara, Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, and Tlajomulco de Zúñiga.