Yale Institute for Global Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Health Syst Reform. 2020;6(1):e1669122. doi: 10.1080/23288604.2019.1669122.
This article explores the politics of passage of the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax in Mexico, using published documents, media articles, and interviews with key stakeholders. The article examines first the period of agenda setting when the tax was included in the President's fiscal reform package; and second, the period of legislative passage, when the bill was introduced in Congress and was passed. The analysis uses Kingdon's three streams theory of agenda setting, to explain how the tax emerged on the agenda and how agenda setting shaped and enabled legislative passage. The article offers five lessons related to the politics of passing the SSB tax in Mexico. First, passing an SSB tax was difficult and required high-level organization, cooperation, planning, and effort. Second, supporters needed an understanding of how to manage the political and economic context, facilitated by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Third, framing the tax as generating revenue helped get the proposal onto the policy agenda and enabled buy-in from the powerful Ministry of Finance (Hacienda). Fourth, forming networks within the legislature early on allowed tax proponents to have a network of allies within Congress ready when the SSB tax was introduced as a bill. Finally, early public relations campaigns helped shape public perception that Mexico's obesity epidemic was driven in part by SSB consumption. This is the first paper that uses political science theory and primary data collection and interviews with a broad range of stakeholders, to explain how Mexico passed an SSB tax despite opposition from a strong national SSB industry.
本文利用已发表的文件、媒体文章以及对主要利益相关者的采访，探讨了墨西哥含糖饮料（SSB）税通过的政治因素。文章首先考察了该税种被纳入总统财政改革方案时的议程设置阶段；其次考察了法案在国会提出并通过的立法通过阶段。该分析采用了金登的议程设置三源流理论，解释了税收是如何出现在议程上的，以及议程设置如何塑造和促成立法通过。本文提出了与墨西哥通过 SSB 税相关的五个经验教训。首先，通过 SSB 税非常困难，需要高水平的组织、合作、规划和努力。其次，支持者需要了解如何管理政治和经济环境，彭博慈善基金会的资助为此提供了便利。第三，将税收框定为增加收入有助于将提案纳入政策议程，并使强大的财政部（Hacienda）对此表示支持。第四，尽早在立法机构内部建立网络，使税收的支持者在 SSB 税作为法案提出时，在国会内部拥有一群随时准备支持的盟友。最后，早期的公共关系活动有助于塑造公众的看法，即墨西哥的肥胖症流行部分是由 SSB 消费驱动的。本文首次运用政治学理论和对广泛利益相关者的原始数据收集和采访，解释了墨西哥尽管面临强大的全国 SSB 行业的反对，但如何通过了 SSB 税。
