Revolutionary Mexico Tried to Transform the World Economy
In the twentieth century, the post-revolutionary Mexican government drew up ambitious plans to transform the world economic system for the benefit of the Global South. Their failure helped turn Mexico itself into a laboratory for neoliberalism.
Former president of Mexico Luis Echeverria. (Bettmann / Getty Images)
Ever since the Spanish invasion of the sixteenth century, Mexico has been preyed upon by the world’s most powerful states. But the country and its people have also played their part in shaping world history.
The Mexican Revolution created a system whose leaders tried to reshape the world economy in line with their own vision. The failure of those efforts turned Mexico into a laboratory for the neoliberal economic model that has spread all over the world. The following is a conversation between Jacobin’s Daniel Finn and professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University Christy Thornton, from an episode of Jacobin Radio’s Long Reads podcast. You can listen to the episode here.
Daniel Finn
Mexico might not have the same reputation as a revolutionary power in world politics when compared with Russia or China or even Cuba, yet it was the location of one of the twentieth century’s first great revolutions. What was the nature of the system that was created by that revolution?
Christy Thornton
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