Decentering the Regime: Ethnicity, Radicalism, and Democracy in Juchitán, Mexico

Since 1989 an indigenous political movement-the Coalition of Workers, Peasants, and Students of the Isthmus (COCEI)-has governed the southern Mexican city of Juchit¦n. In *Decentering the Regime*, Jeffrey W. Rubin examines this Zapotec Indian movement and shows how COCEI forged an unprecedented political and cultural path-overcoming oppression in the 1970s to achieve democracy in the 1990s. Rubin traces the history and rise to power of this grassroots movement, and describes a Juchit¦n that exists in substantial autonomy from the central Mexican government and Mexican nationalism-thereby debunking the notion that a state- and regime-centered approach to power can explain the politics of domination and resistance in Mexico. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, Rubin shows that the Juchitecos' ability to organize and sustain a radical political movement grew out of a century-long history of negotiation of political rule. He argues that factors outside the realm of formal politics-such as ethnicity, language, gender, and religion-play an important part in the dynamics of regional political struggles and relationships of power. While offering a detailed view of the Zapotec community and its interactions, Rubin reconceptualizes democracy by considering the question of how meaningful autonomy, self-government, cultural expression, and material well-being can be forged out of violence and repression.