Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Governing lab

When local governments are able to legislate, they can become sites for experimentation in governance. While Anna-Marie O'Connor, writing in the Washington Post headlines the culture war theme, comparativists should be paying attention to the scope and limits of local government in Mexico. [Thanks to Rebecca Small who teaches at Herndon High School in Virginia for suggesting I take a second look at this article.]

With same-sex marriage law, Mexico City becomes battleground in culture wars
The Mexican wedding may never be the same.

On Thursday, this sprawling megalopolis will catapult to the front lines of gay rights in Latin America when a city law legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption goes into effect.

The prospect of gay marriage has… spotlighted the power of Mexico City's center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) leaders to advance a liberal agenda that contrasts with provincial traditionalism.

Mexico allows the federal district of Mexico City to pass its own laws, and the metropolis of more than 20 million people has become a major battleground in the culture wars playing out across the Americas.

In recent years, the city's PRD-dominated Legislative Assembly has recognized civil unions and no-fault divorce, legalized abortion in the first trimester and given terminally ill patients the right to refuse treatment.

The Legislative Assembly passed the gay marriage act by a broad majority in December… Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, a PRD leader, signed the bill into law -- a first in Latin America...

Mexico's ruling party does not want the Mexico City law to be the catalyst for a domino effect.

The attorney general filed a challenge with the Supreme Court, arguing that the law violates the constitution…

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