Mexican public opinion and perceptions of instability: Revisiting "relative deprivation"

This article draws on two survey snapshots of Mexico taken at a most intere sting time-starting with the historic 1997 mid-term elections and heading t oward the all-important 2000 presidential elections. It advances the notion that Mexico is experiencing a social expectation-regime capability dilemma , which threatens the country's longstanding stability and invokes the theo ry of relative deprivation. Empirical evidence is combined with theoretical work on stability to offer an interpretation of contemporary Mexico, and a n Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model predicting perceptions of s tability is presented. The model demonstrates that the perceived inequity o f income distribution has a powerful effect on perceptions of instability.