Based on six years of research, including interviews with leading Mexican entrepreneurial and political leaders and the assessment of hitherto unavailable materials, this work focuses on the complex political relationship between the Mexican state and leading businessmen from the 1920s to the present. Analyzing nearly 3000 biographies to compare Mexico's two leading competitors for political power, the author uses a humanistic approach to test a number of assumptions about the relationship between the business community and the state and provides new insights into the existence of a power elite, the exchange between economic and political leaders, the self-image of Mexican entrepreneurs, the position of family-controlled firms, and the influence of capitalists on the decision-making process. Camp also provides detailed information on the ownership of Mexico's top 200 firms, including names of stockholders, board members, and managers.

This reference book presents the important issues of contemporary Mexico within the backdrop of its historical background and augments it with an informative analysis and comprehensive bibliography, Mexico, with over 100,000,000 people finds itself with a new and activist president Vincente Fox, the first non-PRI president, along with a good relationship with President George W Bush, formerly the governor of nearby Texas. Mexico is an active participant in NAFTA, a founding member of the WTO, and involved and substantive reforms both in the political as well as economic areas and an oil-exporting country to boot.

Contains nearly 2,000 annotated citations (primarily English language works) divided into forth-eight sections ; citations refer chiefly to works published between 1961 and 1992.

In developing countries, the extent to which intellectuals disengage themselves in state activities has widespread consequences for the social, political, and economic development of those societies. Roderic Camps’ examination of intellectuals in Mexico is the first study of a Latin American country to detail the structure of intellectual life, rather than merely considering intellectual ideas. Camp has used original sources, including extensive interviews, to provide new data about the evolution of leading Mexican intellectuals and their relationship to politics and politicians since 1920.