Links between Mexican business elites and experts: expanding the market borders

Abstract

During the 20th Century, the Mexican business elites were characterized, not only by the economic resources they concentrated, but also by their organizational capabilities, which allowed them to act as if they represented the business community as a whole. Globalization brought important changes in the composition of the business elites, and at the beginning of the 21st Century a new and influential type of organizations emerged, which explicitly seek to influence policy decisions. Their authority is based on expert knowledge, on a relatively plural but not less elitist integration and on a declared autonomy from particular or group interests. The aim of this article is to identify the features of such organizations that operate on market boundaries, across institutional borders and even regardless of territorial frontiers. In other words, the purpose is to show that these delimitations are becoming more and more permeable.