ask Hashemite anything

[Hash]

I apologize in advance to Antonio for blatantly copying his idea and also apologize for this silly egotistical thread, but you may ask me anything in this thread.

Like Antonio I would prefer to focus mostly on my academic/political interests which are Colombian politics/history, French politics, voting patterns/electoral geography, Quebec politics/history, Mexican politics, Latin American issues in general in that order of knowledge with some lesser interest for stuff like education policy, electoral systems/electoral reform and nationalism to namedrop some topics. For myself, I am a Masters' student in polisci also working as a full TA for an undergrad comparative politics class; I was born in Quebec, spent much of my childhood in the apocalyptic desert of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, completed high school in Ottawa, worked for eight months in Colombia and worked as an English teacher in a public school in Mexico for five months. So, whatever, AMA. Except about my views on policy. I don't really care enough about that to answer. Or about my ideology, since I'm unsure of that myself.

[bagelman]

Oui or Non?

Did you experience culture shock during your time in Riyadh?

Did you enjoy your time more in Mexico or Colombia? Also, which part of Mexico did you teach in?

Which of those two countries do you think has the most potential for future improvement?

Are the drug cartels declining?

Would Latin America be better off today if Gran Colombia had held together?

[parochial boy]

Could you explain the electoral habits of Haute-Bretagne, specifically the Rance Valley/D137 corridor? It's an area I know well, but I'm not sure my preconceptions of its voting habits are very accurate. And it doesn't really seem to fit with most conventional explanations of why Brittany (or even France as a whole) votes the way it does.

How come traditionally rural leftist areas in France (for instance the Limousin, Cévennes, Pyrenees) have stayed left wing when in most of the rest of the western world similar areas have moved right?

where in the world would you say has the most interesting electoral geography? and where has the most boring?

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Will you return to your blog to make an epic post about the 2017 French Presidential Election once it is all over?

Which candidate do you personally favour in said presidential election? (Not sure if that falls into the category of opinion on policy and/or ideology or not)

[Anna Komnene]

Did you encounter any examples of subaltern resistance in Saudi Arabia?  Even very small ways of push back count (please don't name names obviously!)

And for a less political question.  What kind of things did you eat there on a typical day?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

How powerful is nationalism in Latin America, given the nations are less hallowed by time, lack the ethnic language of Old World Nations and are bound by a common language? Could they ever integrate to form an EU style union, or is that a pipe dream of crackpots?

Also why are the Greens so powerful in Colombia?

[Antonio the Sixth]

To what extent would you say that voting patterns across the Western world are undergoing a common trend, or at least trends that present notable similarities? It's a discussion I've had with Al and I've wondered where you stand on it.

[Hash]

Oui or Non?

I would have voted Oui to the EU Constitution in 2005.

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I moved to Riyadh when I was barely 4 years old, an age when little kids are sponges and seamlessly adapt to new environments without remembering it later. In general, I've adapted pretty well to any potential cases of culture shock - returning to Canada, Colombia and Mexico - since I've never had any deep roots in any one place. I probably grew up thinking most of the oddities of Riyadh were normal (and Riyadh is less of an alien city than people who don't know KSA make it out to be. It's actually quite normal, mutatis mutandis), and realized as I got older that they weren't but I have a very empirical brain and don't generally think very long about these oddities. I also never 'lost touch' with my actual culture, which likely helped. Given that I spent ages 4 to 15 (bar 1 in Munich) in KSA, the culture shock was probably more Ottawa, which I had been to twice (for like 1-2 days) before even moving there, but it wasn't massive. So, answer is probably no.

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The work I did in Mexico was far, far more rewarding than Colombia and helped me grow as a person. The time I spent in Colombia was, however, far more enjoyable and has left me with deep fascination, attachment and love for that country. It's a country of truly astounding beauty, some of the greatest people and has some my favourite cities and regions in the world.

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Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo - though definitely not the fake touristy parts. Playa is a place I have a love-hate relationship with since.

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Colombia. Mexico seems to be stuck, and people can list the problems but can't come up with solutions, while all politicians seem to be far more interested in politicking. Colombia has a lot of problems, but some politicians do seem to have potentially workable solutions to fixing some of these and has potential if it keeps its act together. Peace, regardless of the kerfuffles surrounding it, is an objectively positive development and it is working.

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They are changing, though perhaps not declining. In Colombia, they have changed dramatically since 1995-1996 and again since 2003-2006, something which American pop culture and general opinion hasn't caught up with. The main change has been the collapse of the powerful overarching cartels with Escobar-like figures and the rise of mini-cartels, fragmented and smaller, operating in a confusing and unstable hierarchy which is constantly in flux, particularly since paramilitary 'demobilization' in 2006. In Colombia, the neo-paramilitary Bacrim are the new drug cartels (or at the top of the unstable hierarchy), with the mini-cartels being cells of the Bacrim, but clearly lack the control over the production and marketing chain that the Medellín and Cali cartel had - much like the FARC and ELN have also lacked control over the production and marketing chain (which is why the right-wing claim of 'the FARC are a drug cartel!' is mostly garbage). Colombian drug trafficking organizations' main roles in the drug trade are sending cocaine and heroin to Central America and Mexico for purchase by Mexican cartels (who smuggle it into the US for distribution), to a lesser extent using Ecuador and Venezuela as transshipment points, with some smaller groups directly supplying drugs to the US market (New York and Florida). In any case, the massive increase in coca cultivation since 2013 means that drug cartels won't decline much - and they won't decline as long as the demand for their products remain.

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Gran Colombia's breakup was likely inevitable. Keeping it together would have required major changes (like federalism or confederalism) nobody could agree on, and even if that had come to pass, it could just have delayed the inevitable for only a few more years.

[Hash]

Could you explain the electoral habits of Haute-Bretagne, specifically the Rance Valley/D137 corridor? It's an area I know well, but I'm not sure my preconceptions of its voting habits are very accurate. And it doesn't really seem to fit with most conventional explanations of why Brittany (or even France as a whole) votes the way it does.

That region tends to lack a well-defined political character, unlike other parts of Brittany. André Siegfried ran into this problem way back in 1913 when approaching Ille-et-Vilaine, which generally lacked a strong political character except for the western confines which are more Maine/Anjou in their politics, and he couldn't come up with a convincing description of its general political leanings and classified it as a marais politique. Today, some things are straight-forward. The wealthy/geriatric coastal resort towns, particularly Saint-Lunaire and Saint-Briac-sur-Mer though also Dinard and Saint-Suliac, are solidly right-wing much like similar places are elsewhere in France. The Rance valley in the 22 has been more traditionally left-wing, although Dinan was more right-wing in the past. There seems to have been an industrial working-class base in Dinan's vicinity although they're largely suburban now. My father's family crade of Langrolay-sur-Rance is pretty reliably left-wing. Historically, the region around Dinan and northern Ille-et-Vilaine had no clear political leanings, but began voting republican and then Radical quite early (late 19th c.) and a look at the deputies elected in the late 19th c. and early 20th c. shows the weak political influence of the nobility. Some historical reasons for this left-wing tradition: (a) small shipbuilding industries in the Rance valley, (b) fishermen/seamen: Siegfried described fishermen and coastal populations in Brittany more broadly as being fiercely republican for a variety of reasons including their independence from clerical and noble influences, (c) smallholders: Siegfried's maps showed the predominance of small properties around Saint-Malo and in the Rance valley. The former canton of Tinténiac (35), is also fairly left-wing, particularly Pleugueneuc (it's claim to fame is the Bourbansais castle/zoo, which may explain things. or not), unclear as to why.

In general terms, the region was religious but the Church's political influence was weak, contributing to the early republican (ie left-wing) traditions. I think.

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I'm not sure if I can give a satisfactory answer. Rural leftism isn't quite dead elsewhere in the world, like Italy or Scandinavia, but I get the general point. As for France, I'm a stickler for 'tradition' and I warn people to underestimate its contemporary effect at their own peril. It may seem like a weak reasoning, and it kind of is, but it goes a long way to explaining certain things about French electoral geography, like the Cévennes and Lozère or the Plateau de Millevaches. As to why these traditions survive but others didn't is more difficult. I would say that, in the Limousin and the leftie Pyrénées (Ariège), tradition is reinforced by the continued relative poverty and underdevelopment of the region and the importance of public sector employment in weak rural economies. It's also self-reinforcing: the PS (PRG and PCF to lesser extents) built up a strong political machines, with clientelistic tints and popular local leaders, while the right has lacked a bench from consistently losing local elections and lacks any kind of comparable political machines with localized exceptions. Of course, you still get flukes like Limoges 2014 (which was truly a perfect storm)... I'm still unsure if this is at all correct or complete bullsh*t.

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I find interesting things about basically every country's electoral geography, since I'm very interested by many aspects in it (rural leftism, religious cleavages, ethnic/racial cleavages, class, tradition etc.), but my personal preference is for countries with non-intuitive or counter-intuitive electoral geography like France, Italy, other parts of Europe, most of Latin America, the US and Canada to a certain extent and so forth. I'm not as drawn (without saying boring) to countries with more intuitive voting patterns, like Britain perhaps. South Africa is great, but its electoral geography isn't riveting - although specific aspects of it are, increasingly so. 'Racial census' elections (I dislike the term) may be boring to most, but they can hide some fascinating stuff too.

[Hash]

Will you return to your blog to make an epic post about the 2017 French Presidential Election once it is all over?

Which candidate do you personally favour in said presidential election? (Not sure if that falls into the category of opinion on policy and/or ideology or not)

1) I would like to, yes, though I'm unsure if I can since I'm busy with a crapload of other things until after the runoff. Maybe this summer.

2) No one. They're either terrible, clowns, incompetent or a mix of the three. I'm going to vote, but I'm undecided. I will probably write-in April Ludgate, given that all other candidates fail the "would he/she be a better president than April Ludgate?". I don't care if I'm wasting my vote or if I'm not "treating this seriously" (French politics is a clown car). I will probably vote FBM in the runoff though.

How powerful is nationalism in Latin America, given the nations are less hallowed by time, lack the ethnic language of Old World Nations and are bound by a common language? Could they ever integrate to form an EU style union, or is that a pipe dream of crackpots?

Nationalism in Latin America is an interesting topic and one I'm not qualified to speak about at length, except for Colombia, where nationalism has traditionally been weak. Nationalism, which in these cases are hard to distinguish from particularly fervent patriotism, seems fairly potent in much of Latin America and is awoken by border disputes and football. For the former, I'm thinking of the old Ecuadorian-Peruvian border dispute or, more recently, the significant upsurge in nationalism in Colombia following the ICJ's ruling on the Colombia-Nicaragua maritime border dispute over San Andrés' territorial water (which led to ridiculous rah rah rah nationalism in Colombia). In Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (and other countries too), nationalism in any case is complicated by the issue of indigenous peoples.

Latin American integration is a common aspiration but will remain a pipe dream given the number of disputes between countries.

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The Greens were founded (not from scratch, but it's a long story) in 2009 by the 'three mayors' (of Bogotá) - Antanas Mockus, Enrique Peñalosa and Lucho Garzón - with the objective of forming an alternative to uribismo and anti-uribismo, a tercería ('third option'), which had a great deal of potential given the personal popularity and draw of the 'three mayors', particularly with the Green primary of 2010 which saw Mockus emerge and ride of wave of false support for the presidential campaign. In general terms, the Green label has attracted a fair number of popular national and local reformist politicians - Antonio Navarro, Claudia López, Gilma Jiménez (in 2010), Jorge Londoño (Boyacá), the Ospina brothers (Cali), Camilo Romero (Nariño, in 2014) and arguably Sergio Fajardo (who isn't with the party but was Mockus' running-mate in 2010 and elected governor with it in 2011).

To what extent would you say that voting patterns across the Western world are undergoing a common trend, or at least trends that present notable similarities? It's a discussion I've had with Al and I've wondered where you stand on it.

I'm not qualified to say that much about it, since I don't have the in-depth knowledge of voting patterns in the Western world, but I instinctively dislike blanket generalizations (particularly wrt to political trends) and I find substantial differences in voting patterns among countries which may appear superficially similar. Still, I do think there are some semblances of similar trends, like the decline of the class cleavage and the growing importance of education as a voting determinant, although the class cleavage was never the same everywhere and its decline hasn't been uniform or had uniform effects (though some, in Europe, similar effects). I also tend to think that, with voting patterns, the devil is in the details - there's always more than meets the eye and generalizations may often miss the point or give only a basic account of things.

[Hash]

Did you encounter any examples of subaltern resistance in Saudi Arabia?  Even very small ways of push back count (please don't name names obviously!)

And for a less political question.  What kind of things did you eat there on a typical day?

1) Not really. I was too young and not in an environment to come across resistance. Most Saudis are apathetic, morose and kept content notably through an oversized public sector. Timid resistance can be expressed in coded or veiled language, vaguely critical of certain aspects of the regime without naming names or criticizing non-monarchical targets. Or through satire, like the popular Ramadan TV series Tash ma Tash, which was originally on Saudi state TV (otherwise sleep-inducing 'live from Makkah for the prayer!' or 'live from Riyadh for the meeting with the Bahraini vice minister for fisheries!'). During my time in KSA, I witnessed the transformation of official mouthpieces like the English-language daily Arab News or multi-lingual Radio Riyadh from caricatures of state propaganda machines to slightly more transparent, if not critical, media capable of basic levels of independent thought (Radio Riyadh is probably still a joke, though; its French-language midday newscast was mostly 'His Majesty King Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, sent a letter to His Excellency the Emir of Umm al-Quwain').

2) Much like what you would eat in North America, really. Riyadh's supermarkets are indistinguishable from American or European ones, in part because Tamimi Markets is the local branch of Safeway and French hypermarkets like Euromarché, Géant and Carrefour have (had?) stores in Riyadh. Perhaps with more standard-fare Arab food, which I'm quite fond of, but it's not like you can't live off of Arab food in Ottawa.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

What is your assessment of Trudeau Jr.'s government so far?

Could you tell us something more about your experience of teaching in Mexico?

[Hash]

What is your assessment of Trudeau Jr.'s government so far?

I like it, moderately. He riles up all the right people, particularly right-wingers, about all the right things (generally), so he gets points for that. I don't have much to say about his policies - they're neither great nor bad, and I agree with him on quite a few of his priorities, though I'm not happy about (lack of) electoral reform or his oil/energy policies (but I realize where I live, and he's not a glorified oil lobbyist like Harper was). I don't get my panties in a bunch about DEFICITS so I don't really care about that. Also, he's not Harper, and he's not any of the future Tory leaders, so there's that.

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It was one of the craziest experience I've had, yet also one of the best and most memorable ones.

A program which only exists because its deranged boss (TWPITW, a real-life mix of Regina George, Mona-Lisa Sapertsein and Lady Mary Crawley), one of the more fascinating and terrible persons I've met, fucked some PRI politician and she makes tens of thousands of dollars off of PRI local governments. TWPITW's ex-husband is a PRI state politician, apparently 'on the run' since the PAN-PRD won state elections last summer, who was leading a massive corruption scheme in the PRI government of governor Roberto Borge, who is nowhere to be found since leaving office and whose government was extremely corrupt even by PRI standards.
 
The crazy-WTF: Nobody was there to pick me up at the airport on the first night and eventually got there 3 hours late, the first sign TWPITW can't be bothered to put her sh**t together for things which don't involve her personally. My two initial housemates got fired or quit within 3 weeks, one being fired for doing cocaine on the dinner table in the house, the other quitting have being dragged down in a crazy drunken stupor with TWPITW, with TWPITW claiming to this day that my roommate tried to "lesbian rape" her. Living alone in a tiny house without internet (promised on the contract) for nearly 2 months, in a low-income Mexican suburban colonia located 45 minutes from downtown. Long weekend without electricity at home because TWPITW forgot to pay the bill.  Dumped, without any training, at a school I knew nothing about with no idea of what to do or expect, facing a similarly confused crowd of 30+ unruly first graders who thought that I was a weirdo speaking incomprehensible gibberish. Moments of despair after handling misbehaving students, sometimes to the point where I had no choice but to storm out of classrooms (of all interns, I had the most grade 1 classes - 5 out of 12, or 150 students). On one occasion, the Mexican teacher forced his unruly grade 1 class to copy "I must not disrespect the English teacher" 100 times.

The crazy-dammit Mexico: Working 22 days in a school without electricity. Getting swindled out of 30 pesos Mexico's richest man/gangster Carlos Slim and his cellphone empire Telcel, because I didn't use up my 'AMIGO PLAN' in 2 days or something. Attending weekly Mexican flag ceremonies with the unsettling ZOGIST salute and 'Roman salute' and goosestepping 10 year olds. Mexican teachers and their union reps heckling one another over a car which had been won in a raffle by somebody from another part of the same municipality. Mexico's federal English language program is plagiarized from the EU's framework and is completely unadapted to realities of Mexican public schools, with ridiculous and nonsensical objectives and projects.

The crazy-lol: Since TWPITW is not a normal person, at the final group dinner, she asked when we lost our virginity and how many times we considered quitting. TWPITW was initially wary, skeptical and suspicious of me - she admitted as much on my very first night, pondering out loud "I hope I made the right choice" when I told her I was in ESL until grade 3 myself. She expressed it in being uninterested towards my general welfare during the first months, although she is rude, unprofessional and uninterested towards most people. She never visited my classes once in the five months. Yet, at the idea, she told me that I was the best of all the interns and 'her biggest surprise'. She gave me basically the only positive superlative at the final group dinner, 'most proactive', mostly because I badgered her to get internet and got it fixed myself without nagging her. She reimbursed me 1000 pesos for the money I lost on the first night. She told me that, if I had not gone off to do my MA, she was going to appoint me program director.

The good: The work I did was extremely rewarding to me personally, and I have a genuine feeling that the work I did contributed to make a positive difference in over 400 young kids' lives, even if just in a tiny way. It was tough, challenging and required perseverance (and also patience [and caffeine] to deal with 350 grade 1-4 students). The bad moments fade away, the fun times last forever -- fun times like seeing a class full of young kids get so happy at singing "head and shoulders knees and toes" time and time again. I will never forget my students. So many cute moments which really touched me. Grade 1 kids swarming to hug me at the end of class, blocking the doorway so that I didn't leave, giving me doodles or handwritten secret admirer notes ("I love you ticher"). Grade 2 kids who made 50+ goodbye cards on my last day ("I/we love you", "the best teacher in the world", "I will never forget you", "you make life better", "you are a great teacher of life", "thank you for teaching us English", "forgive us for our sins", "have a good trip to Canada", "I want to visit your house" or, more deeply, "I want to tell you that your house is here" and, tellingly, "thank you for coming on time to classes"). Grade 3-4 kids who, on the last day, distressed at the news that it was their last class, swarmed up to me at the end of the class and frantically waved their notebooks in my face, demanding my autograph. Grade 5 girls who, after playing 'too old for this' 'I'm the big kid here' (or were too shy and blushing) for five months (the boys tried, somewhat embarrassingly, to act all kewl big kid around me), all hugged me. Or all those times when my students saw me outside of school (quote Mean Girls here) all yelled 'TICHER' or came up to me. It's unforgettable and hit me right in the feels - I broke down crying more than once in my last week of classes. In sum, it was an incredible experience and I will never forget it.

A final note: Mexico's public education system is catastrophically bad. I could go on further, but it's a whole other story.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Great answer!

A follow-up: I remember people talking back in 2000 and 2006 PRI is finished or, at least, relegated to a second-rate force. Seems quite permature in the light of more recent developments.

Does PRI truly stands for anything else than maintaining power machine?

[Barnes]

What is your favorite election of the French Fifth Republic (at any level)? And if you want, discuss with maps.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Did you have any run ins with the notorious SNTE trade union as teacher?

[Hash]

Does PRI truly stands for anything else than maintaining power machine?

We can stand for everything and anything. Please inquire inside for details (payments in money or sex required).

What is your favorite election of the French Fifth Republic (at any level)? And if you want, discuss with maps.

1974 (presidential), 1978 (legislative) and 2005 (referendum) are my favourites. 2002 (presidential) was crazy and is always interesting to look at; I also like 1965, 1958 (legislative), 1981 (presidential).

Did you have any run ins with the notorious SNTE trade union as teacher?

Not personally, no, perhaps because I worked in a school which had been been built just a few months earlier and most teachers seemed to be transient and/or lacking seniority (I think most teachers were not expecting to stay on for the current school year) - I know, for example, that the grade 5 teacher was only 4 years older than me (and was from Sinaloa, I think). On the other hand, the interns on Isla Mujeres - which is a much more established place - said that the teachers instinctively disliked or distrusted them, were zealously overprotective of their turf and generally grumbled about the existence of the English program. Although this may be because of TWPITW, who apparently liked to fire off oficios (official statements with ministry letterhead) telling them how to do their jobs.

I did, however, see the SNTE in action at the teacher's day dinner in Isla Mujeres - one of the biggest social events in Mexican public education, attended by all the top local politicians and legislators (school is often cancelled the next day, on the expectation that every teacher will get blind drunk*). As soon as said politicians had left, the SNTE union rep and other teachers decided to abruptly cut the music and begin a shouting match, declaring that a car which had been duly raffled off to a teacher from another part of the same municipality (Isla Mujeres is an island, the eponymous municipality also includes a poor section on the continent) could not be allowed to leave the island. I don't recall the details, but it involved a lot of yelling and heckling, nasty stuff, and I lost whatever respect I still had for the Mexican education system. Another of my weirdest experiences.

* yes, the party is often held during a weeknight, rather than on a Friday. Weekends are precious - get drunk on Thursday, cure your hangover on Friday and get drunk again on the weekend! (you can always skip work on Monday if need be)

[Barnes]

What is your favorite election of the French Fifth Republic (at any level)? And if you want, discuss with maps.

1974 (presidential), 1978 (legislative) and 2005 (referendum) are my favourites. 2002 (presidential) was crazy and is always interesting to look at; I also like 1965, 1958 (legislative), 1981 (presidential).

Excellent choices. The 1978 legislatives are just beautiful for the nearly perfect four-way split.

[DC Al Fine]

How did the Mexican teachers union get to be so powerful? Why is no other union big enough to make its own political party?

[parochial boy]

Could you explain the electoral habits of Haute-Bretagne, specifically the Rance Valley/D137 corridor? It's an area I know well, but I'm not sure my preconceptions of its voting habits are very accurate. And it doesn't really seem to fit with most conventional explanations of why Brittany (or even France as a whole) votes the way it does.

That region tends to lack a well-defined political character, unlike other parts of Brittany. André Siegfried ran into this problem way back in 1913 when approaching Ille-et-Vilaine, which generally lacked a strong political character except for the western confines which are more Maine/Anjou in their politics, and he couldn't come up with a convincing description of its general political leanings and classified it as a marais politique. Today, some things are straight-forward. The wealthy/geriatric coastal resort towns, particularly Saint-Lunaire and Saint-Briac-sur-Mer though also Dinard and Saint-Suliac, are solidly right-wing much like similar places are elsewhere in France. The Rance valley in the 22 has been more traditionally left-wing, although Dinan was more right-wing in the past. There seems to have been an industrial working-class base in Dinan's vicinity although they're largely suburban now. My father's family crade of Langrolay-sur-Rance is pretty reliably left-wing. Historically, the region around Dinan and northern Ille-et-Vilaine had no clear political leanings, but began voting republican and then Radical quite early (late 19th c.) and a look at the deputies elected in the late 19th c. and early 20th c. shows the weak political influence of the nobility. Some historical reasons for this left-wing tradition: (a) small shipbuilding industries in the Rance valley, (b) fishermen/seamen: Siegfried described fishermen and coastal populations in Brittany more broadly as being fiercely republican for a variety of reasons including their independence from clerical and noble influences, (c) smallholders: Siegfried's maps showed the predominance of small properties around Saint-Malo and in the Rance valley. The former canton of Tinténiac (35), is also fairly left-wing, particularly Pleugueneuc (it's claim to fame is the Bourbansais castle/zoo, which may explain things. or not), unclear as to why.

Thanks, so would you discount the influence of Rennes on the region as a whole? Certainly, over the last 15 years, a lot of the villages in the area. I'm thinking of places like Becherel, Tinteniac, St Pierre de Plesguen seem to have become increasingly exurban/commuter areas for Rennes. A quick check on Wikipedia seems to confirm my impression that a lot of those rural areas have seen a fair degree of repopulation since the end of the 1990s, reversing centuries of decline. My vague understanding is that these sorts of areas tend to be friendly to the FN usually, but this area really isn't; although, and I could have completely misunderstood, my understanding is that the commuter are north of Rennes tends to be wealthier than the south of Rennes (presumably because of proximity to the sea?)

(sorry to keep asking, but I find these explanations of French electoral geography fascinating)

[Hash]

How did the Mexican teachers union get to be so powerful? Why is no other union big enough to make its own political party?

The major thing to understand is that, under the old PRI system, the main Mexican unions were part of a corporatist structure and had official ties to the PRI. The corporatist structure came undone in the 1990s and in the 2000s, but neither Fox nor Calderón were able (or overly willing) to dismantle it completely and traces of the old corporatism are very much present, especially to a foreign eye not used to it.

Much like in Third Republic France, free, public and secular education was one of the major causes and achievements of the Mexican Revolution or, more accurately, those who claimed to carry the cause of the Revolution afterwards (i.e. the PRI and its predecessors) - and people died for it. Teachers (maestros) were footsoldiers for this cause and gained significant political influence; as well as widespread public respect by virtue of their positions. Private education remains very marginal in Mexico (13% of students in the last schoolyear, even less in basic education) and the public education system is a behemoth of 27.3 million students (excluding universities), 23,000 schools and 1.3 million teachers. The SNTE was formed in 1943 as the single corporatist union for teachers and, more broadly, all public education workers (school directors, ministry officials, retired teachers) and became one of the key actors in education policy alongside the public education ministry (SEP) and, since the 1990s, state education departments. In 2013, the SNTE had about 1.5 million members. The SNTE ensured governments stability (and a vote bank), the government gave the SNTE various perks in return - including, infamously, effective union control over teacher remuneration, hiring, promotion/demotion, dismissal and oversight (and, also, lots and lots of money). Among other monstrosities, until a 2013 census, the government did not know how many teachers there were in the country. In addition, as with other unions tied to the PRI, SNTE leaders regularly served as deputies, senators and governors (as was the case with Elba Esther Gordillo, La Maestra). The election of the PAN in 2000 changed matters, but the SNTE under La Maestra (despite her being PRI general secretary during this time) quickly built a good working relation with the PAN, so that it retained control over education.

The reason the SNTE has a party is that, around 2006, Elba Esther Gordillo got into a public internal conflict with PRI leader Roberto Madrazo (a disreputable dinosaur loathed by a good chunk of the party's bases) which led to her expulsion from the party. In the past, union disputes took place in private within the structures of the PRI, often arbitrated by the presidency -- La Maestra became SNTE boss in 1989 with Carlos Salinas' support, backstabbing her predecessor Carlos Jonguitud (in the same way he got his job in 1974). She supported Calderón (PAN) in the 2006 election, and the SNTE/PANAL got rewards in return -- for example, an education secretary who in a 2012 documentary said pointblank that "it is normal" that the SEP didn't know how many teachers there were in the country. PANAL, besides being a lucrative business venture like all other Mexican parties, increased the SNTE's bargaining power. Things changed in 2012-2013, with La Maestra's arrest and the education reform (the two events were related), and since then with the growth of the rival thuggish CNTE (particularly in Oaxaca and Chiapas) in protests against the education reform, which the SNTE has supported. PANAL has basically become a PRI satellite party like the flawless beautiful PVEM, likely doing the SNTE's bidding with the government behind the scenes.

There are other big unions in Mexico - like the other parts of the old corporatist machine - but the difference with the SNTE is that they have remained loyal to the PRI. For example, the oil workers' union (STPRM) is powerful, led by the ridiculously corrupt Carlos Romero Deschamps, who has been a PRI senator -- and loyal stalwart of EPN and the energy reform -- since 2012. The corporatist union federation CTM has declined significantly, and we are a long way from the imposing leadership of Fidel Velázquez (who led it from 1950 to 1997), but the CTM has been treated well by the PRI.

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Thanks, so would you discount the influence of Rennes on the region as a whole? Certainly, over the last 15 years, a lot of the villages in the area. I'm thinking of places like Becherel, Tinteniac, St Pierre de Plesguen seem to have become increasingly exurban/commuter areas for Rennes. A quick check on Wikipedia seems to confirm my impression that a lot of those rural areas have seen a fair degree of repopulation since the end of the 1990s, reversing centuries of decline. My vague understanding is that these sorts of areas tend to be friendly to the FN usually, but this area really isn't; although, and I could have completely misunderstood, my understanding is that the commuter are north of Rennes tends to be wealthier than the south of Rennes (presumably because of proximity to the sea?)

(sorry to keep asking, but I find these explanations of French electoral geography fascinating)

I didn't mean to discount Rennes' influence - I just meant that the left's strength in some communes in northern rural Ille-et-Vilaine predates suburban growth; it's visible on maps of the 1995 and even 1974 runoffs, for example, so there's something in the water, and it was a region which Siegfried had no idea about what was going on. Certainly suburban growth would have reinforced that lean to the left.

Rennes' suburbs are, on the whole, rather white-collar and educated middle classes - who commute to work in a left-wing, anti-FN city like Rennes which probably isn't alien to the low FN support in those suburban communes. There isn't a very stark north-south difference in terms of suburban wealth. The FN doesn't do well in such kinds of communes: it does well in more out-there, exurban areas and/or in suburban communes without that many educated middle classes (which in larger urban areas are also white flight suburbia). In Ille-et-Vilaine, the FN does well in the former canton of Maure-de-Bretagne, which is mostly Rennes or Redon suburbia/exurbia and isn't has highly-educated as some inner suburbs (it is also close to Guer, which has a strong FN vote because it's a military town) and, in recent years, the baie du Mont-Saint-Michel (Pleine-Fougères) which is one of the most economically and demographically depressed parts of the department (and is not suburban).