The Subnational Executive-Legislative relations in the Budget Process in Mexico

Across Mexican states congresses have the power to amend and approve the budget proposal submitted by the Executive. The aim of this paper is to examine what variables influence the Executive-Legislative relation during the budget approval process for the 2000-2012 period. The analysis shows that congresses make more amendments when the party of the governor loses seats or in contexts of divided government. Also, when the PRI is the opposition party there are more amendments to the budget. In contrast, electoral years and vertical divided government have no effect on the number of changes to the budget.