ABSTRACT
As in many other Latin American countries, Mexico’s processes of liberalisation and democratisation took place almost simultaneously. The economic restructuring policy that started in the mid-1980s under president de la Madrid was extended by president Salinas and locked in in 1994 with Mexico’s entry into NAFTA, and in the following years fine-tuned by president Zedillo. Meanwhile, Mexico’s de facto state party, the PRI, gradually allowed for more political competition at its right (the PAN) and left (the PRD). After a period of several electoral victories at the local and state level, in 2000 the PAN won the presidential elections with its candidate Vicente Fox, and the PRI faced the end of its traditional position as provider of the president and holder of a majority in the federal Congress.
