Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (COPARMEX)
Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (COPARMEX)
The Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (COPARMEX, or Employers' Confederation of the Mexican Republic) is a Mexican employers' organization created in 1929 to oppose government intervention in the economy. The main difference between COPARMEX and other entrepreneurs' organizations is its independence from the Mexican government in institutional and political terms. This independence enabled COPARMEX to be more straightforward in its criticisms of policy making in Mexico, but it also reduced COPARMEX's capacity to gain government favors for its members. Unlike other employers' organizations that were led by businessmen from Mexico City (such as CONCANACO or CANACINTRA), COPARMEX's leadership originated in the northern city of Monterrey.
During the first thirty years of its existence, COPARMEX was unattractive to many entrepreneurs because other employers' organizations—those organizationally and financially dependent on the state—were in a better position to influence policy making. However, during the 1960s and 1970s, as government favoritism declined, COPARMEX's confrontational stance became more appealing. Although COPARMEX never advocated the creation of a political party (what the scholar Roderic Ai Camp has called the "last logical step" of COPARMEX's strategy), the organization has a close relationship with the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), and many of COPARMEX members have run for political office under the PAN banner, including the 1988 presidential candidate Manuel J. Clouthier (1934–1989).
See alsoCámara Nacional de la Industria de la Transformación (CANACINTRA); Clouthier del Rincón, Manuel J; Confederación de Cámaras de Comercio, CONCANACO; Mexico, Political Parties: National Action Party (PAN).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Camp, Roderic Ai. Entrepreneurs and Politics in Twentieth-Century Mexico. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
COPARMEX Internet site. Available from http://www.coparmex.org.mx.
Sergio Silva-CastaÑeda