ABSTRACT
Electoral debates have become a regular feature in democracies around the world. Analysing their evolution in a particular context sheds light into the formal and informal components that define freedom of expression, political inclusion, and public deliberation. Electoral debates appeared in Mexican politics until the presidential race of 1994. Since then, presidential debates have become a regular campaign feature every six-year term. In the last presidential elections of 2018, 34.7 million Mexican voters watched three presidential debates on television and 19 million did the same through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This chapter tries to explain how a country with a long-standing anti-debate tradition gave way to an open exchange of opinions before a large multi-platform audience. In order to do so, the paper analyses the structure and context of Mexican presidential debates from 1994 to 2018 in order to better understand the factors defining its presence in both federal and local elections. The chapter moves on to discuss the main lessons emerging from the 2018 experience in relation to the production, broadcast. and organisation of presidential debates in Mexico. Finally, it points out those challenges ahead for electoral debates in a multi-media environment.
