Countermajorities and anti-democracy: Reasons for the reform of the judiciary in Mexico

Abstract

The configurations of the State and the law through the liberal State, then partly through the social State of the 20th century, and through the constitutional State of law in Mexico from the 21st century onwards, have had a counter-majoritarian genesis and course and a certain anti-democratic character, generating elitism and classism in large parts of its institutionality. This does not mean that there have not been social struggles, through contradictions and antagonisms, that have torn away each democratizing element that has been won over to political power and the legal field in these two hundred years. In this context, the judicial power in Mexico has had, from its genesis until today, a fundamental anti-democratic and counter-majoritarian role, relevant protector of the minorities that hold the social relationship of capital. From this position we present some reasons for the reform of the judiciary in Mexico.