Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

López Obrador Has Few Checks on His Power

The new Mexican president’s predilection for governing by referendum challenges the role of Congress: A Q&A before the inauguration.

November 30, 2018 at 3:08 PM UTC

By Jonathan Bernstein

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Now for the hard part.
Photographer: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

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I last spoke with the political scientist Jennifer Piscopo, an expert in Latin American politics at Occidental College, right before the Mexican elections this summer. The president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will take office on Saturday, so I went back to Piscopo to see how things have changed in the intervening months.

The following has been lightly edited for clarity.