In recent years, numerous corruption control agencies, autonomous electoral institutes and central banks, independent auditing agencies, human rights Ombudsmen, and "public prosecutors" have sprung up throughout the developing world in an attempt to provide discipline and responsiveness in the use of state power. Like some of their counterparts in the developed world, many of these new independent pro-accountability agencies often are characterized by poor institutional performance. What explains the level and variation in the types of problems faced by different government agencies tasked with regulating and inspecting abuses of state power? This dissertation looks to explore these questions by comparing and contrasting the history, structure and functioning of three independent agencies in Mexico: the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Superior Federal Auditor (ASF). This project poses two hypotheses. First, the "sabotage" hypothesis argues that the more power the Mexican authoritarian coalition has over an agency's founding and reform, the more design flaws it has that will negatively affect its institutional performance. Second, the "grounded professionalism" hypothesis argues that independent agencies perform better when they have meritocratic recruitment (for both high and low-level officials), are trusted and actively supported by powerful sectors of society, and have a strong institutional location within government. In order to test these hypotheses the investigator will spend twelve months in Mexico conducting interviews and consulting archival materials. The broader impact of this research will be achieved through its distribution, its potential to promote collaboration between US and Mexican researchers, and its contribution to social science training and infrastructure. The study's findings will be disseminated in four ways: (1) It will be incorporated into the lectures and reading assignments for the classes on political change in Latin America and Mexico that both the PI and the CO-PI teach at UC Santa Cruz; (2) It will be incorporated into the consulting work that the Co-PI conducts on pro-accountability state reform in the developing world; (3) It will be presented at professional meetings and conferences; (4) It will be used to write articles that will be submitted to leading journals and publishers in the field of Political Sociology. This research will also enhance the infrastructure for research and education by facilitating cross-border scholarly networks since the co-PI will be housed at one the most important research institutes in Mexico (the Center for Economics Research and Teaching (CIDE)) during his fieldwork which will allow him to establish important links between the UC system and the Mexican research establishment.
