This book examines the underlying causes of current institutional reform in telecommunications throughout the world, where nations striving for success in the emerging global economy are seeking to establish institutions conducive to rapid telecommunications infrastructure development. At the same time, the world has undergone a significant structural change over the past decades described as globalization, and trading blocs -- NAFTA, EU and a new Asian bloc -- have also emerged. While increased trade is crucial to the formation of these global and regional systems, telecommunication is crucial to trade. The increasing importance both of trade and of effective telecommunications systems has produced a significant amount of institutional reform.
This study utilizes Anthony Giddens' metatheoretical framework of structuration to analyze Mexico's telecommunications reform. It finds that two contrasting periods of the Echeverria and Salinas administrations which had significantly different understandings of the Mexico's position in the global economy show diametrically opposed policies on trade, foreign investment, and telecommunications.
