TITLE:
The National Anticorruption System in Mexico: Democracy and Efficient Governments 2016-2022
AUTHORS:
Mario C. Chavarria Suarez
KEYWORDS:
Rule of Law, Democracy, Government, Citizen Rights, National Anticorruption System
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.12 No.3,
July
28,
2022
ABSTRACT: The
origin of the State as a form of social organization was linked to
democracy as a form of government; both analytical categories entail essential
qualities in people such as equality and freedom, but with different characteristics,
powers, and obligations. The Rule of Law can be an effective check on the
exercise of state power; democracy, in turn, can be the most appropriate
political system for the protection of fundamental rights. In the context of a
deep inequality gap, Mexico lags in fighting corruption. Since the promulgation
of the general law regulating the National Anticorruption System (NAS) in 2016 (Congreso de la Unión,
2017), efforts have been made to coordinate the work of Mexican authorities at
all levels of government for the prevention, detection, and punishment of acts
of corruption. Faced with social disenchantment with politics, democracy, and
the weakening of state sovereignty, it is worth asking what is the relationship between the Rule of Law and democracy?
What is the socio-political context on which the NAS emerges? How has it worked institutionally? And what have been its
repercussions in the configuration of the Rule of Law? These questions are part
of a national research agenda, but also of a global agenda in contemporary
democracies. I attempt to contribute to the study of a complex relationship
between the Rule of Law (as one of the dimensions of quality democracies),
democracy (as a form of government in Mexico) and the fight against
corruption in the country (as one of the indicators of the Rule of Law) based
on the NAS, recently passed into law, and facing serious challenges to function
with all its capacities and powers. This relationship between Rule of
Law-Democracy-Controls of legality represents one of the biggest obstacles in the
path to democratic consolidation.