The deconstruction of the Mexican state
housing polices 1917-1988
The Mexican State, characterized by the solidity of its institutions and the stabilitity of its political life, has given evidence of its profound political transformation towards the end of the XX century. Few are the scholars who explain these changes as a result of the State´s historical process and not only as an answer to changes in the international arena.
And even less are those who incorporate a vision in which individuals and groups, inside and out the administrative apparatus, are the responsible actors of today´s situation.
With this peculiar approach and using examples derived from the housing institutions and policies since 1917, José A. Aldrete-Haas offers in this book answers to issues such as last ten years´s growing political importance of urban social groups, particularly since the 1985 earthquake in México City; the political process through which ‘participatory housing programs’ are established for the Solidarity National Program in low income settlements; the problems, myths and fallacies of self-help programmes and the obstacles for a successful ‘political solidarity’.