ABSTRACT

This chapter analyses the nature, outcomes, and underlying dynamics of efforts at political liberalization in Mexico during the last ten years. It reviews Mexico's principal efforts at political liberalization since 1976 and their historical antecedents. The chapter focuses on the political reform efforts made thus for by the administration of President Miguel de la Madrid and on the challenge posed by the mid-term elections of July 1985, which were widely viewed as a test of the incumbent government's commitment to political reform. It explains the implications of the elections for the future of political liberalization in Mexico. Scholars have reached a high level of consensus on the nature of Mexico's inclusionary authoritarian regime. Mexico's political system, however, is more complex than practically any of the authoritarian regimes that have ruled other Latin American, African, and Asian nations in recent decades. Mexico's system of political parties and elections is, indeed, malfunctioning.