FOX & THE GOVERNORS : Mexico's new chief needs some help.

Mexico city--The nomadic Somalis have forty-five names for the camel because of the dromedary's crucial role in their lives. In contrast, Mexicans have traditionally employed a plethora of terms to mock the self-serving authoritarianism of the nation's thirty-one governors, most of whom emerged from the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Tlatoani (head honcho), cacique (boss), and caudillo (strongman)--these words glisten on the pages of the derisive gubernatorial lexicon.

But Mexico is changing at a vertiginous pace, as evidenced by the mid-2000 defeat of the PRI presidential standard-bearer by Vicente Fox Quesada, fifty-eight, a member of the center-right National Action Party (PAN). For the first time since its founding in 1929, the PRI no longer holds Los Pinos presidential residence. While agreeing to the 2001 federal budget, PRI legislators yearn to derail Fox's bold initiatives aimed at spurring growth, creating jobs, lowering inflation, overhauling the tax system, and expanding energy output. As a result, Mexico's new chief executive may have to turn to the once-disparaged governors to advance his agenda.

Before Fox came roaring into town, the PRI president laid down the law to his party's deputies and senators. True, members of Congress have shown greater independence in recent years, and priista lawmakers groused incessantly about the free-market policies of Ernesto Zedillo, the Yale-trained economist whom Fox succeeded. But when Zedillo and other PRI executives demanded votes for their budgets, tax increases, or favorite projects, legislators dutifully "swallowed toads"--in exchange for patronage and favors.

Although the PRI lost the presidency, it commands 211 seats in the 500-member Chamber of Deputies and 70 seats in the 128-member Senate. Combined with the leftist-nationalist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD)--51 deputies and 15 senators--it can deep-six any of Fox's free-market-oriented proposals.

Not only has the PRI lost its big enchilada--and chief legislative strategist--in Los Pinos, but it lacks a strong, legitimate party president: someone who could cut deals with Fox and ensure compliance with any accords. The PRD, a mishmash of erstwhile priistas, social democrats, Marxists, and ex-guerrillas, is more a Mideastern bazaar than a coherent political organization. In fact, contenders for their respective party leadership posts have unleashed particularly virulent attacks on Fox in hopes of lifting their intraparty stock.

PRI honchos, who treated the presidency as their birthright for seventy-one years, yearn to knee-cap the six-foot-five-inch Fox to bolster their numbers in Congress in 2003 on the way to regaining Los Pinos three years later. Several PRD notables, including Mexico City's rabble-rousing populist mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also hope to ascend to the presidency.

The absence of constructive opposition has deprived Fox of a honeymoon. In Congress, the PRI-PRD tandem has flailed him for:

* disrespecting the legislative branch at his swearing-in (December 1) by paying homage to his family before mentioning deputies and senators;

* breaching the wall separating church and state by accepting a cross from his daughter at the close of his first nationally televised address; and

* assertedly shortchanging pensioners and other "have nots."

In clamoring for increased spending on social programs and for retirees, the legislators seemed oblivious to the recent downturn in both oil prices and the U.S. economy--factors that had helped power Mexico's 7-percent growth in GDP in 2000, a figure that may fall to 4 percent this year. Nevertheless, Fox's no-nonsense treasury secretary, who warned that unrealistic demands and bad-faith bargaining could "sink" the nation's economy, quelled Congress with some judicious horse-trading.

The real challenge will come during the March 15-April 30 session. Then Congress will weigh in on the big issues--attracting more private capital into the electricity sector, revamping an antiquated tax system, devolving more resources and programs to state and local governments, and battling corruption.

Mexico-watchers believe that Fox will, a la Bill Clinton, personally court wavering lawmakers to solicit their support for his program. In addition, he would like to have the authority to hold referenda and plebiscites, and will certainly use the bully pulpit of national TV. Analysts have already christened him the "cellular president," because he prefers to travel around the country meeting with folks rather than remain behind an ornate desk in Mexico City. For example, he has continually monitored the danger posed by Popocatepetl, the ash-belching volcano near the capital.

Fox could also enlist corporate moguls, long accustomed to lavishing their time, energy, and resources on the presidential palace during the PRI's top-down rule. They will have to lobby mightily in the halls of Congress on behalf of broadening their nation's version of perestroika.

Still, to be successful Fox needs the PRI and it is the party's governors who can determine the fate of the former businessman-governor's six-year presidential rule. With a handful of exceptions, these men evince far more pragmatism than Congress, and they boast considerable clout with their states' congressional delegations.

The nineteen current PRI governors had an important voice in selecting their party's legislative nominees last year. And since lawmakers are banned from pursuing immediate reelection, state administrations are attractive postlegislative employers--especially for deputies, who serve only three years. Governors can furnish grossly understaffed federal solons with airline tickets, cars, office help, and other perks that U.S. congressmen take for granted.

While some panistas in Mexico City are miffed at the small number of cabinet portfolios awarded to their party, the PAN's seven governors share Fox's commitment to breaking legislative logjams to spur growth and employment. Several PRD state executives embrace the same goals, despite the ranting of their legislative comrades. A case in point is Governor Ricardo Monreal of Zacatecas. He is a presidential hopeful who has created a single office to help prospective investors in his picturesque state acquire the federal and state permits needed for their start-ups. In addition, Fox-endorsed "coalition" governors in impoverished, rural Nayarit and Chiapas have also rolled out the red carpet for entrepreneurs.

Partisan differences aside, state leaders have a strong incentive to lend Fox a hand, especially if he moves quickly to provide them with substantially more resources. Like their U.S. counterparts, these men occupy the front line in generating employment, fighting poverty, promoting social services, boosting production, and stimulating exports. Thus, they are vigorously courting new industries, whose profitability will hinge on the additional energy supplies derived from outside investment--an issue that sparks cries of "selling out the patria" from nationalists. Fox's Economic Ministry can steer prospective investors to the states of cooperative governors; the Finance Ministry, as also the Communications and Transport Ministry, can provide the infrastructure required for their projects; and various agencies can bulldoze the mountainous regulations confronting entrepreneurs.

Opposition leaders will continue to attempt to stymie Fox's agenda. Opportunists in the PRI and PRD may even try to pit workers and peasants against the middle class and the business community. Needless to say, this kind of class warfare, which the PRI actively discouraged during its seven-decade reign, would send chills through financial centers. Fox can head off such divisiveness and score far more wins than losses if he joins with enlightened, no-nonsense state leaders from across the political spectrum. Such teamwork might revive certain words long dormant in Mexico's gubernatorial vocabulary--liderazgo (leadership), legitimidad (legitimacy), and inovacion (innovation).

George W. Grayson writes frequently on Mexico. He is a professor of government at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.