“Completely honest and highly informative. To look at a legislative body is to observe democracy in the raw—with all its diverse characters and influences and its many conflicts, compromises, and achievements. Dede Feldman, a first-rate observer and chronicler, shows us the insides of the New Mexico State Senate.”—Fred Harris, former U.S. Senator and professor emeritus of political science, University of New Mexico Elected to New Mexico’s state senate in 1996, Dede Feldman faced the challenges that confront state legislators around the country along with some that are uniquely New Mexican. In this forthright account of the workings of New Mexico’s legislature, she reveals how the work of governing is actually accomplished. In New Mexico’s part-time citizen legislature, Spanish may be spoken in the halls of the capitol as often as English, and Native American issues are often pivotal. But each year the Land of Enchantment’s legislators, like those in other states, must balance revenues and expenditures, tangle with lobbyists, and struggle with redistricting and campaign finance reform. State legislatures’ approaches to air pollution, drunk driving, and chronic disease, Feldman’s book reveals, find their way into national law after they’ve been road tested on the highways of various states.

This new revision of New Mexico Government includes a brief history of the state and other chapters on government organization, local and tribal governments, elections, and education.

A lively, engaging ethnography that demonstrates how a volatile politics of race, class, and nation animates the infamously violent struggles over forests in the U.S. Southwest.

Here some of the state’s most noted and qualified policy experts answer two vital questions: New Mexico 2050—What can we be? What will we be? They have produced in this volume, edited by former US Senator Fred Harris, a dynamic blueprint for New Mexico’s future—a manual for leaders and public officials, a text for students, a sourcebook for teachers and researchers, and a guide for citizens who want the Land of Enchantment to also become the Land of Opportunity for all. Contributors include economists Lee Reynis and Jim Peach, education policy expert Veronica García, health and health care specialist Nandini Pillai Kuehn, political scientists Gabriel Sánchez and Shannon Sánchez-Youngblood, Native American scholar Veronica Tiller, icon of New Mexico cultural affairs and the arts V. B. Price, authorities on water and the environment Laura Paskus and Adrian Oglesby, planning specialist Aaron Sussman, and inaugural Albuquerque poet laureate Hakim Bellamy. Digital versions of individual chapters allow interested readers to explore the key issues impacting the state of New Mexico.

"This is the best introductory text of Mexican politics for American students. The book keeps an updated account of contemporary events and places them in comparative perspective. It also explains many idiosyncratic issues of Mexican politics in a very accessible way. Politics in Mexico is not only a great textbook for students but also a very useful reference for scholars interested in Mexican politics"--Provided by publisher.

Stephanie J. Smith brings Mexican politics and art together, chronicling the turbulent relations between radical artists and the postrevolutionary Mexican state. The revolution opened space for new political ideas, but by the late 1920s many government officials argued that consolidating the nation required coercive measures toward dissenters. While artists and intellectuals, some of them professed Communists, sought free expression in matters both artistic and political, Smith reveals how they simultaneously learned the fine art of negotiation with the increasingly authoritarian government in order to secure clout and financial patronage. But the government, Smith shows, also had reason to accommodate artists, and a surprising and volatile interdependence grew between the artists and the politicians. Involving well-known artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as some less well known, including Tina Modotti, Leopoldo Mendez, and Aurora Reyes, politicians began to appropriate the artists' nationalistic visual images as weapons in a national propaganda war. High-stakes negotiating and co-opting took place between the two camps as they sparred over the production of generally accepted notions and representations of the revolution's legacy—and what it meant to be authentically Mexican.

"This book broadens our understanding of democracy in Mexico beyond the electoral arena and identifies some of the main challenges for defending and expanding democratic rights."--Neil Harvey, New Mexico State University.

Frenemies who sow discord: a malicious heart hides behind loving lips. The strong have restraint, the weak do not. The problem is: surrounded by evil you just feel nuts. By smooth words/flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the simple. The enemy sows discord and division to the dumbed down who can't discern truly good from evil. You're not even supposed to reason with a fool, yet these simpletons are your enemy's army against you. Chapter art by Karen Kellock, Inner art by Fox Design and Blaze Goldburst

This book provides a comprehensive and penetrating investigation of the governmental and political processes of New Mexico. It combines a view of how the social and political history have shaped contemporary New Mexico political culture and the nature of governmental and political affairs. Formal governmental institutions and political processes provide a descriptive narrative of New Mexico government and politics. Contents: PART I: The Function of State Government; The Land of Enchantment; Paso por aqui; Powers Not Delegated; Any Amendment or Amendments to this Constitution; PART II: The Form of Government; The Executive Department Shall Consist of...; The Legislative Power Shall Be Vested In; The Judicial Power of the State Shall Be Vested In; All Elections Shall be Free and Open: Parties and Politics in New Mexico; From Bernalillo to Valencia: County Government; From Aztec to Wagon Mound: Municipal Government; Pueblos, Acequias and Land Grants: Other Political Units Mexico; PART III: The Future of State Government; Public Policymaking in New Mexico