Only 61.62 percent of candidates to federal charges —Presidency, Senate and Chamber of Deputies— report having an academic degree equivalent to a bachelor’s degree or higher in their registration with the INational Electoral Institute (INE).
According to the digital platform Get to know them, only 115 of the four thousand 568 candidates registered to occupy a seat in the Congress of the Union or the Presidency have a doctorate, although almost half of these report that they are still pursuing their degree or do not yet have a degree.
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The women They are the ones with the highest degrees of study. The Strength and Heart Alliance for Mexico (PAN-PRI-PRD) has more candidates with a master’s and doctorate level, while Sigamos Hazando Historia (Sigamos Making History)Morena-PVEM-PT) has more bachelor’s level applicants.
On the men’s side, the ruling alliance has more candidates with a bachelor’s degree than its political opponents in the PAN-PRI-PRD and Citizen Movement (MC).
On average, one in two candidates and candidates who provided information to INE, claims to have completed a university degree, although more than a hundred report it as truncated or still in progress. One of these cases is that of the legislator of the National Action Party (PAN), Lilly Téllez, who refers to the electoral institute, truncated bachelor’s degree as the last academic degree. The Sonoran senator’s level of education has been a mystery for a long time, since it is unknown what degree she studied and at which university, although for years she worked as a journalist.
In Mexico it is not mandatory to have a academic degree to compete for a position choice popular, unlike other countries that do require a specific level of education to occupy legislative positions. In the country or the states, no formal educational requirements are established to hold a political position.
One of these cases is that of Cuauhtémoc BlancoMorena candidate for deputy for the principle of proportional representation and licensed governor of Morelos, who in the platform of the INE reports having only the completed secondary school.
On the American continent, Chile is the only country that establishes a academic degree minimum as a requirement to aspire to be a legislator, although the level of this is basic.
According to the Constitution of the South American nation, to be a representative citizens must be over 21 years old, have lived at least two years before the election in the region to which their district belongs and have secondary education, which is equivalent to secondary In our country. In the case of the senatorsthe requirements are the same, adding that of being 40 years old on election day.
Not even the United States, with one of the conferences broadest and most recognized in the world, establishes a level of scholarship minimum to aspire to one of the seats in the Capitol, either as a representative (deputy) or senator. However, 68 percent of US legislators have educational levels above the bachelor’s level.
Switzerland is another example. According to research carried out by the University of Lausanne on the socio-professional profile of the people who make up Parliament, which was published last December, 72 percent of its parliamentarians have an academic degree equivalent in Mexico to master’s degree20 percent for the doctorate and only eight percent for degree.
Alberto Escamilla, political scientist of the UAMpoints out that the complaints from sectors of opinion about the quality of politicians revolve around the education level of them and even establish a direct relationship between the degree of formal education of the deputies or senators and the characteristics of democracy because “in conditions of social and economic inequality, people’s educational level is a distorted indicator that may rather reveal a greater degree of elitism of the political class.”
The information as of April 11 shows that 4.95 percent of candidates for the Congress they only have the preparatory finished, 1.28 secondary school and 0.13 percent primary school.
Of the total number of candidates Congress federal 30.33 percent did not register their academic level.
The political parties that present candidates with a lower level of education are the Green Ecologist of Mexico (PVEM) and the Labor Party (PT).
Laura Valencia Escamilla, research professor at the UAMconsiders that political parties in Mexico have increasingly taken into account the personal training of the candidates who are running for Congress. In that sense, he describes as a myth the idea that the majority of those who become legislators They are poorly prepared people.
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“In terms of educational levels, theMexican legislators They have a solid university education: between 50 percent and 90 percent of the representatives have undergraduate and postgraduate studies, which reflects that the parties in Mexico have taken advantage of the personal training of their candidatesespecially if we take into account that the professional union to which the majority belongs is in the careers of lawyer, doctor, engineer and teacher of basic education,” he explained.
Regarding the presidential candidacies, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has the highest academic degree, having a degree in doctorateJorge Álvarez Máynez follows him by reporting to the INE that he has a master’s degree and Xóchitl Gálvez has bachelor’s level studies with two specialties.