Sergio Elías Gutiérrez
Whenever something does not work—security, education, agriculture, the economy—the response is usually the same: pass a new law or reform an existing one as if the simple act of publishing it were enough to solve the problem. For their part, legislators often celebrate its approval with great fanfare, often without fully understanding its content or anticipating its real effects. To gauge the extent of this trend, one need only review the volume of regulations that have accumulated in recent years.
The website of the Ministry of the Interior, ordenjurídico.gob.mx contains a record of federal constitutional reforms, federal laws and regulations, and the laws of the 32 federal entities. The website clarifies that the official publication organs are the Official Gazette of the Federation and the state gazettes. Another relevant source is the Chamber of Deputies website. It reports that, from October 1, 2018, to date—a period that coincides with the so-called 4T—the Constitution has been amended 48 times.
According to the National Legal System website, there are 302 federal laws, nine of which are codes. The oldest is the Commercial Code of 1889, issued by Porfirio Díaz; the most recent is the National Code of Civil and Family Procedures of 2023, which will take effect in 2027. The other 293 laws fall into all kinds: constitutional regulations, organic laws, substantive laws, and procedural laws. The first to be issued was the Mexican Navy Ordinance, published by Francisco I. Madero on December 12, 1911, a few months after he came to power, with “only” 1,868 articles.
Since the beginning of his administration, former President López Obrador has justified the use of the Armed Forces for civilian tasks by stating that he had found an inoperative public administration, “like an elephant lying in the middle of the room.” He also threatened to eliminate most federal agencies and relocate the survivors to different cities across the country. Nuevo León, he said, would be home to the Ministry of Economy. The move did not happen, but numerous federal delegations did disappear or were reduced.
In the current six-year term, presented as the “second stage of transformation,” the enactment of laws has accelerated, with many derived from recent constitutional reforms. Several of these reforms have a direct impact on the economy. This is the case with the Mining Law, which complicates the granting of concessions if specific social demands are not met. Something similar is happening in the energy sector, where private participation has been limited, even though the state lacks the capacity to cover the required investment.
Added to this is the elimination of support for the countryside, which has sparked protests by food producers, who are even threatening to suspend activities. The same is true of the new National Water Law, whose effects have not yet been thoroughly evaluated. Legislative expansion is not always effective in addressing public problems. In many cases, it would be more useful to design and implement well-structured public policies that leverage the existing legal framework.
Public policy specialists agree that the first step should be a clear diagnosis of the problem. Then come the alternative solutions. The most complex stage, however, is implementation, where even the best regulatory designs often fail. Law schools teach little about legal sociology, which is essential for understanding why laws are not consistently enforced. Perhaps it would be advisable to pause the legislative frenzy and begin to measure its effectiveness seriously. One need only look at the level of impunity in criminal matters, which is close to 100 percent, to understand that legislating is not the same as governing.
As the Prince of Lampedusa said: make changes so that everything remains the same.
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