Industrialisation Beyond Mexico's Centre: A Multilevel Approach to State-Led Industrialisation

The present research project aims to contribute to the developmental literature on Mexico’s industrialisation. In pursuing this, it will deviate from previous studies of Mexico’s industrialisation where the state’s federal level is generally the main focus. In contrast, this thesis highlights multilevel characteristics with the objective of providing a new perspective regarding state-led industrialisation.
The research questions for this project will thus be as follows: to what extent have subnational actors contributed to industrial transformation in Mexico? Then, as a following objective, this thesis will examine how these industrialising efforts have been consolidated at a subnational level.
To address these objectives, two subnational case studies will be compared. The states of Nuevo Leon – Mexico’s early industrialiser and one of its bigger Northern states— and Queretaro –a catching-up state located in the centre, which is among the smallest in terms of territory and population. Using these case studies, it will be argued that in the case of Mexico, the state-society alliances necessary for industrial transformation have been formulated at the subnational, rather than national, level. As a result, these alliances have given way to parallel patterns of industrial policy and state-society relations enabling both subnational states to achieve rapid industrialisation.
Overall, this thesis aims to make two main contributions to the existing literature on state-led industrialisation. First, by undertaking more of a long term approach, it aims to examine the institutional origins and evolution of industrial policy in Mexico. Secondly, due to Mexico’s more diffuse industrialisation, this research hopes to provide a testimony of the more multileveled characteristics that successful industrialisation has had in the Mexican case. Having undertaken this examination, the thesis also contributes to an agenda to broaden the explanatory scope of the literature on state-led industrialisation.