Peasant Movements and the Fourth Transformation in Mexico: What Does the Theory of Collective Empowerment Tell Us?

ABSTRACT This article examines peasant and Indigenous movements in Mexico since Morena's rise to power in 2018 through the lens of collective empowerment theory, a theory of political‐cultural formation. Beyond offering an empirical assessment, the theory is refined and formalized through an analysis of these movements and their relationship to progressive state intervention. Starting from the recognition of empirically verifiable advances in income distribution, the article examines whether these state‐level achievements have been accompanied by a strengthening of organized collective subjects. Through a comparative analysis of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), Movimiento Plan de Ayala Siglo XXI (MPASXXI) and other movements, the article shows that the government's organizational disintermediation model produces a structural ambivalence: It may reduce clientelist practices while simultaneously weakening collective organizational capacity. The article concludes by identifying three interrelated determinants of transformative collective empowerment—organizational autonomy, democratizing interaction with the state and popular‐democratic structural incidence. It argues that durable popular‐democratic societal transformation depends on their dynamic articulation in Mexico and beyond.