Mexico's Political Awakening

True democracy has been long in coming to Mexico but citizen rebellion and thework of social leaders helped bring about dramatic changes at the end of thetwenti... » 

True democracy has been long in coming to Mexico but citizen rebellion and thework of social leaders helped bring about dramatic changes at the end of thetwentieth century. The traditional dominance of the oneparty state has yieldedto a more democratic structure marked by growing decentralization and theadoption of fairer election rules and procedures.Vikram Chand examines the role of major institutions in fosteringdemocratization in Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s offering an understandingof how these changes came about and why they are likely to last. He focuses onthree important factors that fostered this transition the growingparticipation of the Catholic Church and its lay organizations in politics theproliferation of nongovernmental civic associations dedicated to promotingclean elections and the emergence of vibrant opposition parties. Heparticularly highlights the conservative National Action Party about whichlittle has been written in English.Chand tells how the rise of a more politicallyaware citizenry and the growingpower of nonstate institutions pressured the ruling InstitutionalRevolutionary Party into adopting electoral reforms resulting in the firstopen primary for gubernatorial elections in 1998. Using the state of Chihuahuaas a case study he draws on primary research including 250 interviews withkey figures in the political process to demonstrate how the mutualinteraction of national and regional politics has helped bring about thesedemocratic transitions.Mexicos Political Awakening is a bottomup perspective on democratizationcorrecting analyses which view that process in Mexico as flowing down from thePresident. Itchallenges existing theories of democratization by emphasizing theimportance of strong social institutions for the development of democracy andit demonstrates that increases in political participation play a vital role instrengthening those institutions. «