ABSTRACT
Mexico unambiguously transited to democracy in 2000 when the PRI lost the presidential race and accepted its defeat.1 Some analysts believed the party would not survive. Others believed that since the party retained a formidable nationwide political ‘machine’ and still controlled corporatist organizations and the vast majority of executive posts (governorships and mayoralties), the PRI could make a comeback in the 2006 elections. The first scenario was one of collapse of the traditional political system, similar to what occurred to the Christian Democrats in Italy; the second scenario looked more like the reconstitution of Communist Parties in many countries in Eastern Europe, as discussed by Grzymala-Busse and Ishiyama in this volume.
