The Social Policies of the Federal Government and the Government of Mexico City during the 21st Century’s Pandemic

Abstract

This paper analyzes the social policies implemented by the federal and Mexico City governments to face the serious health, economic and social situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 and 2021. The aim is to discuss the concordance and/or discordance of the instruments created in response to the emergency by these two government levels, which are controlled by the same party for the first time since local authorities were elected by citizens in 1997. Although the public health dimension was the priority, both applied different kinds of instruments - economic, fiscal, and social - to meet the social protection needs of lower-income sectors and vulnerable groups. However, this major governmental effort revealed the weaknesses of the country’s social protection system, which aims to fulfill the constitutional rights of all citizens —health, food, housing, and education—, and the need to restructure the current social policies of both the federal and local governments.