Enabling Environments for Civic Movements and the Dynamics of Democratic Transition - Mexico
| Publisher | Freedom House |
| Publication Date | 10 July 2008 |
| Cite as | Freedom House, Enabling Environments for Civic Movements and the Dynamics of Democratic Transition - Mexico, 10 July 2008, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4912b62528.html [accessed 5 November 2017] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Period of democratic transition: 2000
Pro-democracy civic movement: not present
For 70 years, Mexico was governed by the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI) in what was deemed "the perfect dictatorship." Elections occurred every six years, but the results were preordained.
The disputed, possibly fraudulent victory of Carlos Salinas over Cuauhtemoc Cardenas in 1988 spelled the beginning of the end of PRI rule. The election marked the first time that the PRI did not win a supermajority in the Federal Congress, requiring it to obtain support from others to carry out its agenda. As a result, Cardenas's left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution and the pro-business Party of National Action (PAN) were able to extract electoral reforms from the PRI, the most significant of which was the establishment in 1996 of the Federal Electoral Institute, an independent institution charged with control of the electoral process. The peso crisis of 1994 contributed to the overwhelming defeat of the PRI in municipal, gubernatorial, and congressional elections in the mid-1990s, culminating in its loss of simple majority control of the Congress in 1997.
The 2000 presidential elections, held under intense international scrutiny, produced a surprisingly decisive victory by the PAN's candidate, Vicente Fox Quesada, marking the end of over 70 years of one-party rule. Unlike the situation in other Latin American countries, the military has not intervened in politics in the postrevolution era, making the risk of a coup very low. In 2006, in Mexico's first postdemocratization election, PAN candidate Felipe Calderon won a controversial victory in an extremely close competition.
