De pueblo a sociedad civil: el discurso político después del sismo de 1985

Abstract

This article examines the emergence of the idea of civil society in the Mexican public sphere after the earthquake of 1985 as well as its popularization and the transformations of its meanings in subsequent decades. By analyzing journalistic accounts of the earthquake, the text argues that civil society replaced the people as the legitimate national collectivity in the context of the transition to neoliberalism. From being the symbol of the national collectivity, “the people” were redefined as an obsolete actor: the antithesis, and forerunner, of civil society.