ABSTRACT
In contrast to other Latin American countries, Mexico’s move away from authoritarian rule has been painfully slow. While most Latin American countries underwent rapid transitions toward democratic rule as military regimes collapsed throughout the region, Mexico’s PRI managed to retain power through the 1980s and 1990s. The election of Vicente Fox in 2000 brought to an end the longest governing authoritarian regime in the world, a regime that, during its halcyon days, dominated all aspects of national life. During the PRI’s traditional rule, access to decision and policy making was highly restricted to the ruling élite, which relied on an elaborate balance of clientelistic co-optation, electoral manipulation and selective repression to remain in power. Support for the regime began to erode in 1968, when the PRI leadership decided to suppress violently a student demonstration, and accelerated in the 1980s as socio-economic conditions of large sectors of society deteriorated. By the mid 1990s, the PRI’s hegemony was clearly in decline and the regime began to experience a dispersal of power that has unfolded unevenly across areas and levels. While political liberalization has brought about genuine power competition in some parts of the country, such as Mexico City and other urban areas, in other parts there has been a re-entrenchment of authoritarian practices by local elites who have resisted democratization. Political liberalization has also been accompanied by the strengthening of political institutions and civil society, but it has also unfolded amid growing socio-economic disparities and a deepening of exclusionary and decision making practices.
