Word: system
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...ultramasculine tough guy who shows no emotion, whether fear, pity or love. Another is the country's political system, which is as impenetrable to outsiders as the inner workings of the Kremlin. It combines some of the best and worst features of democracy and despotism under a banner of revolutionary rhetoric that no one heeds...
...This system has resulted in a political stability rare for Latin America; Mexico has not faced an attempted coup in more than 60 years. But the P.R.I.'s dominance has also provided ample documentation of Lord Acton's dictum that power tends to corrupt. Says an experienced Mexican attorney: "When a Mexican official gets an important post, he steals from it instead of serving in it. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is." From policemen to Cabinet officers, officials routinely ask for and get bribes, ranging from the $2 that will persuade a traffic cop to tear...
...once were undisputed masters of million-acre game preserves and cattle ranches, have been displaced from the top of the social pyramid by a new elite of rich cosmopolitan entrepreneurs and a growing middle class. Mexico City's Bernardo Quintana, for example, built the capital's famous subway system and now handles construction projects all over Latin America. Another highly successful family is that of Garza Sadas of Monterrey, whose investments in tourism and Grupo Industrial Alfa, an industrial conglomerate, are estimated to be worth $1 billion...
During the erratic presidency of Luis Echeverria, the system came closer to breaking down than at any other time since the 1910 revolution. Frightened by his leftist economic proposals, like forming state enterprises and financing them with freshly printed money, many businessmen quietly transferred funds to safer havens, in Europe and the U.S. Inflation and a declining balance of trade forced Echeverria to devalue the peso in 1976 by about 50%, incurring the anger
...first time, several of TIME's economists worried that the intransigent inflation might endanger the free economic system. Lower- and middle-income citizens have accepted the inequities of capitalism because they figure that they have an opportunity to get ahead. If inflation and slow growth rob people of the chance to save and advance, they may be tempted to veer sharply left or right...