Horizontal Inequality in Chiapas – 25 Years After the Zapatista Movement
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Master’s Programme in Economic Growth, Development and Population Horizontal Inequality in Chiapas – 25 years after the Zapatista Movement by Juliane Koch [email protected] Abstract: The International Development Community places individuals at the center of concern for policy making. This study investigates why group analyses are crucial for the welfare of individual and social stability, and claims that the concept of Horizontal Inequality (group-based inequality) is important but widely neglected. The group of investigation is the indigenous population in Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state. Since their initial protests in 1994, they demand more rights and a more equal society. The research at hand shows that little has changed since then as the indigenous population still lags behind in terms of socio- economic indicators. Apart from providing patterns over time, this study finds that the indigenous population in Chiapas is worse off than in other Mexican states. This demonstrates that the prevalence of high economic and social inequality patterns still hinder Chiapas’ indigenous population from improving their poor living standards. Thus, this thesis concludes with policy implications and a call for strengthening efforts on behalf of the Mexican government. Key words: horizontal inequality, indigenous population, poverty, chiapas EKHS21 Master’s Thesis (15 credits ECTS) 29-05-2019 Supervisor: Edoardo Altamura Examiner: Word Count: 15,971 Acknowledgements I am highly grateful to Frances Stewart and Alicia Puyana for their valuable advice and comments about the concept of this thesis and its methodology. Furthermore, I thank the National Council for Evaluation of Social Development Policy in Mexico for providing me with extensive datasets and clarifications. Lastly, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Edoardo Altamura of the Department of Economic History at Lund University for his constant support and advice. Juliane Koch Table of Content 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Research Design and Outline of the Thesis .......................................................................................... 3 2 Qualitative Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 The Concept of Horizontal Inequality ................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Definition and Importance ............................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 The Concept’s Development and Promoting Scholars .................................................................... 7 2.1.3 The Consequences of Horizontal Inequality .................................................................................... 8 2.1.4 Policy recommendations following the logic of Horizontal Inequality ......................................... 10 2.2 Mexico ................................................................................................................................................. 11 2.2.1 Economic Background ................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.2 Inequality in Mexico ...................................................................................................................... 13 2.2.3 Mexico’s Educational System and its Inclusiveness ...................................................................... 14 2.2.4 Mexico’s Indigenous Population and their Inequality Pattern ....................................................... 16 2.2.5 Horizontal Inequality in Mexico .................................................................................................... 18 2.3 Chiapas ............................................................................................................................................... 24 2.3.1 Chiapas’ Economic Background .................................................................................................... 25 2.3.2 Chiapas’ Indigenous Population .................................................................................................... 28 2.3.3 The State’s 1994 Riots and Its Further Development .................................................................... 30 2.3.4 Horizontal Inequality in Chiapas .................................................................................................... 31 3 Quantitative Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 32 3.1 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................ 33 3.2 Data ..................................................................................................................................................... 34 3.3 Chiapas’ HI in 2010 - Results and Discussion ................................................................................... 38 3.3.1 Municipality Grouping ................................................................................................................... 38 3.3.2 Cross-Tabulating Procedure ........................................................................................................... 39 3.4 Comparison of Chiapas’ 2010 Horizontal Inequality ......................................................................... 42 3.4.1 Comparison of Horizontal Inequality patterns in Chiapas and Mexico, 2010 ............................... 42 3.4.2 Comparison of Chiapas’ Poverty Pattern of 1990, 2000 and 2010 ................................................ 43 4 Limitations .................................................................................................................................................. 44 5 Policy Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 46 6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 48 7 Reference List ............................................................................................................................................. 50 8 Appendix ...................................................................................................................................................... 58 Juliane Koch List of abbreviations: National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, Mexico CONEVAL (Consejo Nacional de Evalucación de la Política de Desarollo Social) National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Population, CDI Mexico (Comisión Nacional para el Desarollo de los Pueblos Indígenas) United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ECLAC (Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, CEPAL) Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación EZLN Nacional) HI Horizontal Inequality National Institute of Statistics and Geography, Mexico (Instituto Nacional de INEGI Estadística y Geografía) NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development UNDP United Nations Development Programme PISA Programme for International Student Assessment VI Vertical Inequality Juliane Koch List of Tables: Table 1: Grouping of Municipalities Regarding Their Degree of Indigeneity ......................... 20 Table 2: Municipality Division Regarding Their Degree of Indigeneity ................................. 20 Table 3: Social deprivation in different municipality types, Mexico, 2010 ............................. 21 Table 4: Impact Indicators by Type of Municipality, Mexico, 2010 (In Percentages and Ratios) ...................................................................................................................................... 22 Table 5: The Development of Mexico's Poverty Gaps between 1990 and 2010 (Percentages and Ratios) ................................................................................................................................ 24 Table 6: Municipality Division Regarding Their Degree of Indigeneity ................................. 34 Table 7: Poverty and Economic Deprivation Variables ........................................................... 35 Table 8: Social Deprivation Variables ..................................................................................... 36 Table 9: Poverty Type Variables .............................................................................................. 37 Table 10: Chiapas’ municipality division based on their indigeneity in 2010 ......................... 38 Table 11: Chiapas’ Municipalities regarding their Social Backwardness ................................ 39 Table 12: Impact Indicators by Type of Municipality, Chiapas, 2010 (In Percentages and Ratios) .....................................................................................................................................