Sheinbaum and the Generals

[Judi Lynn]

By Ramón I. CentenoMarch 2, 2024 Z Article

Mexico now faces what Max Weber called “the problem of succession,” which emerges when a country has a charismatic leader. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is Mexico’s most consequential political leader in nearly a century—to find a president of comparable impact, one must go as far back as President Lázaro Cárdenas. AMLO, a textbook case of a charismatic leader, could have been the model for Weber’s reflections on the topic.

In Economy and Society, a book as thick as a block of adobe, the German sociologist dedicated key passages to the question: What happens when a charismatic leader leaves office?

Weber believed that either one of two things occur: authority “is either traditionalized or rationalized,” he said. That is, either a new charismatic leader is produced or charisma’s power is transferred to an institution. The first has yielded the Kim dynasty in North Korea, for example, whereas the latter can be seen in the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s reign in twentieth century Mexico.

In Mexico, the main obstacle to the transition from one charismatic leader to another is the prohibition against presidential re-election, which is a legacy of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). The prohibition has held firm even in the face of a leader like AMLO. His charismatic leadership can last through a six-year presidential term but not a day longer.

More:
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sheinbaum-and-the-generals/

[Judi Lynn]

1. The photo with this article is strange:

Why don't they give the guys in the first 3 rows a break, and let them switch place with the people playing bugles? Yikes!