Mexican politcal boundaries 101

March 2, 2017 10:14 AM

This list of Mexican deputies has two columns: 'Entidad' and 'Distrito/Circunscripción'. Would it be correct to translate them to English as 'State' and 'Municipality'?

Google tells me 'Entidad' translates to 'Entity'. Google also tells me 'Distrito' and 'Circunscripción' translate directly to 'District'. (What's the difference? Are both terms the same?)

Can anyone offer a better translation? I gather from this Wikipedia article that the translation might be 'State' and 'Municipality'.

Do 'Entitad' and 'Distrito/Circunscripción' have standard English translations?

posted by popcassady to Law & Government (5 answers total)

Best answer: 'Entidad' is short for 'Entidad Federativa' or 'Federal Entity'

So that maps to the concept of States except that Mexico DF is a Federal Entity but not a State.
posted by vacapinta at 10:34 AM on March 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: 'Distrito' is an electoral term in this case and probably best translates as Electoral District or just 'District' for short. (Though specifically a single-member district)

Someone better versed in Mexican politics may know more. My knowledge comes from being from a family of politicians in Mexico.
posted by vacapinta at 10:42 AM on March 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Would it be correct to translate circunscripción as 'electoral district' too?
posted by popcassady at 10:57 AM on March 2, 2017

Best answer: My understanding is that Circunscripcion means that the deputy represents an electoral region which is a slightly different concept. Districts are usually bounded geographically whereas electoral regions are bounded by population - and thus shift a bit with each election.
posted by vacapinta at 11:18 AM on March 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This is a list of members of the lower chamber of the Mexican national legislature (cámera de diputados), roughly equivalent to the U.S. house of representatives. There are 500 members total: 300 are elected from the individual electoral districts (distritos) into which each state is subdivided, and 200 are elected from the 5 large, multi-state electoral regions (circunscripciones) through a system I don't fully understand but that is not particularly relevant to the question of how to translate these terms. It's standard to translate entidad as state; this is even the translation used by Mexican government publications in English. Yes. there is one entidad federal that is not a state, but it's better to provide a translation that is 5% inaccurate but meaningful (state) than a translation like federal entity that is 100% accurate but not very meaningful to your target audience.
posted by drlith at 5:38 PM on March 2, 2017