Mexico’s infant multipartyism, stemming from the end of the 1980's to the first decade of this century, resulted in a conflictive and stagnant governance and bargaining at the federal level –where decisions were confronted by parties representing very different concerns based on Mexico’s regionalism.
This conflict, nonetheless, represented an opportunity at the local level –shifting the limelight to local political actors who didn’t face the same obstacles in their bargaining as their federal counterparts, leading to a development from below.
This local development paper will be carried on through two case studies in the cited conflictive period of multipartyism: Baja California and Nuevo Leon, two of the industrial-driving forces of Mexico which maximized their opportunities based on local institution building, showing there is a solid alternative to the overemphasized focus on development at the national level.
