The Political Work of “Culture” in Struggles to Reform the Mexican State

Abstract

This article addresses the question of how state officials promote reform and generate buy-in absent sanctioning power. We examine how, in such cases, reformers deploy culture as a “category of practice” to articulate political projects, direct resources and energies, and make certain reform efforts possible. Drawing on participant observation and 120 in-depth interviews, we examine culture-talk and culture-work within efforts aimed at implementing monitoring and evaluation policies in Mexico. We find culture-talk helps reformers account for failure and set their reform efforts apart from competing proposals, while culture-work seduces cooperation and ensures reformers access to different parts of the state. We argue that when mobilized against the challenges reformers face, culture narratives and practices have important political effects, contributing to the legitimation, expanding jurisdiction, and organizational survival of reform niches in Mexico. Our argument illuminates the cultural dimensions of political reform and the performative power of state reform actors.