REGIONALISM, REGIME TRANSFORMATION, AND PRONASOL - THE POLITICS OF THE NATIONAL SOLIDARITY PROGRAM IN 4 MEXICAN STATES

Political change in Mexico since the crisis of 1994 has been character ised by the breakdown of centralised hierarchies and the dispersion of power across geographical regions. We examine the changing relations between regional officials of the National Solidarity Programme (PRONA SOL) and local PRI politicians in four Mexican states: Puebla, Nayarit , Tamaulipas, and Baja California. Although PRONASOL was dismantled a fter 1994, the influence of anti-poverty bureaucrats has varied across geographic regions, depending on whether they had been authorised to engage in grass-roots mobilisation and/or party politics under Salinas . We emphasise the importance of regional politics in transitions from dominant-party regimes, and the impact of conflicts within the politi cal hierarchies of the old regime.