Paper short abstract:

Between 1928 and 1932 future Mexican President Cárdenas governed Michoacán, “a general rehearsal” of his Presidency's main traits. This paper will discuss to what extent the main cardenista policies regionally implemented can be considered as characteristic of a “populist government”?

Paper long abstract:

Between 1928 and 1932 future Mexican President Cárdenas governed the State of Michoacán. By 1928 he was very close and loyal to former President and "Gran Jefe" -the man behind the presidency- Calles, who was a progressive revolutionary statesman, but was not considered to be a representative of "the socialism of the Mexican Revolution". Nevertheless, between 1920 and 1928, Cárdenas had been in close contact: with Francisco Múgica and with Adalberto Tejeda, both radical governors of Michoacán and Veracruz in the twenties, and with the problematic of the Mexican oil, owned by very powerful foreign companies and with their Mexican workers.

From the moment he took office in Michoacán until the last day of his governorship, in crucial spheres such as the agrarian, the educational, the organizational, the religious, etc., Cárdenas developed a social policy and a relationship between society and State that surprised more than one. On one hand his government was more "to the left" than the sonorense governments that Obregón and Calles had represented between 1920 and 1928. But on the other hand his government also proved to be different from those of his "leftist" homologues and friends, Múgica and Tejeda, mainly in the sense that conciliation became one of its main features.

The particular traits of Cradenás' government in Michoacán were new in the country's post-revolutionary politics. This paper will discuss to what extent can this government, with no doubt a regional rehearsal of his future Presidency, be considered as characteristic of a "populist government"?