"Privatization and policies of economic liberalization were hailed by many critics as key factors which would help lead Mexico towards a process of deeper democratization at the beginning of the 1980s. This book challenges that claim. Using original research and empirical data for a major case-study, it demonstrates that privatization generated new resources which were used for personal benefit and also to lubricate existing relationships, in this particular case, that between the state and the union.

It concludes that the cause of democratization was not furthered: indeed old corporalist relations were strengthened, having been oiled by corruption and privilege."--BOOK JACKET.