Studying institutional development is not only about empowering communities to withstand political buccaneering; it is also about generating effective and democratic governance so that all members of a community can enjoy the benefits of social life. In the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, cross-border governance draws only sporadic—and even erratic—attention, primarily in times of crises, when governance mechanisms can no longer provide even moderately adequate solutions.

This volume addresses the most pertinent binational issues and how they are dealt with by both countries. In this important and timely volume, experts tackle the important problem of cross-border governance by an examination of formal and informal institutions, networks, processes, and mechanisms. Contributors also discuss various social, political, and economic actors and agencies that make up the increasingly complex governance space that is the U.S.-Mexico border.

Binational Commons focuses on whether the institutions that presently govern the U.S.-Mexico transborder space are effective in providing solutions to difficult binational problems as they manifest themselves in the borderlands. Critical for policy-making now and into the future, this volume addresses key binational issues. It explores where there are strong levels of institutional governance development, where it is failing, how governance mechanisms have evolved over time, and what can be done to improve it to meet the needs of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in the next decades.

Contributors
Silvia M. Chavez-Baray
Kimberly Collins
Irasema Coronado
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera
Pamela L. Cruz
Adrián Duhalt
James Gerber
Manuel A. Gutiérrez
Víctor Daniel Jurado Flores
Evan D. McCormick
Jorge Eduardo Mendoza Cota
Miriam S. Monroy
Eva M. Moya
Stephen Mumme
Tony Payan
Carla Pederzini Villarreal
Sergio Peña
Octavio Rodríguez Ferreira
Cecilia Sarabia Ríos
Kathleen Staudt
 

Tony Payan, PhD, is the Françoise and Edward Djerejian Fellow for Mexico Studies and director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at the Baker Institute. He is also a professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ).

Pamela L. Cruz is the research analyst for the Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico. She works with the director and affiliated scholars to carry out research on Mexico’s policy issues and U.S.-Mexico relations.
 

 “This excellent book addresses border governance institutions and documents how dynamic events have outgrown institutional capabilities for governance. Exceptional chapters on institutions and governance that address transportation, data generation, planning, energy, health, security, the environment, and other areas of the border reality make this book essential reading for border students, researchers, and practitioners.”—Paul Ganster, author of The U.S.-Mexican Border Today: Conflict and Cooperation in Historical Perspective

“This book confirms that institutional coordination and integration remain underdeveloped at the United States–Mexico border and that this lack of alignment has resulted in governance problems and challenges in an era of twenty-first-century securitization, neonationalism, and populism.”—Victor Konrad, co-author of Beyond Walls: Re-inventing the Canada–United States Borderlands— -