In Mexico, after years in the wilderness, the political left finally came to power with the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. And to the surprise of his friends and skeptics alike, it’s hard to see his administration as anything less than a rousing success.

During AMLO’s term in office between 2018 and 2024, real wages went up nearly 30 percent, labor’s share of income grew by 8 percentage points, and poverty dropped by 12 percent, pulling more than 13 million people above the line. These results are the product of historic increases to the minimum wage, elimination of outsourcing schemes that allowed employers to sidestep a series of legal obligations to their workers, and legislative reforms facilitating unionization, as well as a slate of cash transfer social programs.

In addition to extraordinarily high approval ratings averaging 70 percent, a Gallup poll at the end of AMLO’s term suggested that “confidence in national government” had jumped from 29 percent to 61 percent during his party Morena’s time in office. The Pew Research Center likewise showed that “Mexicans’ satisfaction with their democracy” had risen 42 percentage points since 2017. AMLO’s successor and longtime political protégé, President Claudia Sheinbaum, has continued to hold similarly high levels of approval. In essence, 2018 ushered in a political regime contingent on a new social pact, where class politics are back in the mainstream and the state is now relegitimized as the primary social actor that “can do big things.”