Mexico: Substantial Rights Advances and The Puzzle of Limited Anti-rights Mobilization

Abstract This article refines Payne, Zulver, and Escoffier’s (2023) theory of the right against rights (RagR) through the Mexican case, where significant advances in the rights of disadvantaged groups coexist with limited anti-rights mobilization mainly targeting gender equality and sexual and gender diversity. We argue that the credible threat posed by rights advances—a central condition of the theory—is necessary but insufficient for RagR mobilization. Its translation into collective action depends on two additional conditions: functional suppressors—state and non-state actors that neutralize the redistribution of power enabled by legal advances—and pre-existing resources among right-wing anti-rights civil-society actors. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, we assess this specification across four agendas: reproductive rights, sexual diversity, irregular migrants, and Indigenous peoples. RagR mobilization emerges only where functional suppressors are marginal and prior anti-rights organizational resources exist, as in the gender-equality and sexual-diversity agendas; it remains virtually absent elsewhere. This specification advances RagR theory and informs comparative research on anti-rights mobilization in Latin America and beyond.