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30C H A P T E R Icurrency caused high inflation; the bureaucratic apparatus grew, and excessive publicspending was encouraged; foreign investment decreased sharply and a third-worldmentality was promoted. The result was the loss of the purchasing power of wages, theimpoverishment of the middle class, and a loss of confidence in institutions and politicians,best known for their rapacity and corruption.The true liberal period in Mexico began around 1983 and continues to this date. Theexhaustion of the authoritarian system, demands for citizen participation, world trendstowards liberty, and the internal crisis of the PRI strengthened the political oppositionand forced modernization, based on the ideas set forth a century earlier by Benito Juárez.These changes were initiated by the PRI itself and continued by the party that came topower in 2000, the PAN. Today, direct and universal democracy has been achieved, andindependent organized groups—dedicated, for example, to the protection of humanrights—have been created. In the economic sphere, private and foreign investment hasbeen encouraged, the size of the bureaucracy is being reduced, public spending is undercontrol, and free trade agreements have been signed with numerous countries. Socially,programs assisting the most vulnerable groups have been created, such as Solidarity,Opportunities, and Peoples’ Insurance.In short, the history of Mexico has oscillated between central economic control andliberalism accompanied by elements of social assistance. The struggle for freedom inMexico has been arduous, but every day—in spite of attempts to return to the populismof the past—the certainty that freedom is an indispensable foundation for individual andsocial progress is strengthened.3. Constitutional and Political SystemAlthough Mexican independence was achieved in 1821, for several decades the legal andcourt system established under colonial rule remained in effect. The first Mexican republicangovernment adopted the Constitution of 1824, based on the United States model.With the end of French rule in Mexico, President Benito Juárez re-established the Constitutionof 1857. In 1870 the first Mexican civil code was created, which had been precededby a short-lived commerce code. The new civil code and civil procedures codefollowed the French model, and the commercial code was influenced not only by Frenchlaw, but also by the Italian model.The 1917 Constitution emerged from the Mexican Revolution, drafted by the differenttriumphing groups. It is the constitution still in force today, although it has beenamended on many occasions, especially during the 70 years of single-party dictatorship(1929-2000). As established in the 1917 Constitution, Mexico is a representative, democratic,federal republic, composed of 31 states and a Federal District. The states are freeand sovereign in their internal governance, but united in a Federation (Article 40).