Abstract

WUHS, Steven. "Democratic" Rules and the Anti-democratic Implications: Presidential Candidate Selection in the PAN and PRD for the 2006 Election. Polít. gob [online]. 2009, vol.16, n.spe2, pp.51-75. ISSN 1665-2037.

Mexico's Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) and Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), like most parties, have opened most of their selection processes to broader participation -what some scholars term the "democratization" of candidate selection. After outlining the contours of their evolving rules, this article elucidates the internal politics surrounding presidential candidate selection in the PAN and PRD for the 2006 election. In addition to situating those selection processes in a broader trajectory of party development, it offers an explanation for the surprising performance of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa in the PAN's primary as well as the complicated politics through which Andrés Manuel López Obrador arrived as the PRD's "candidate of unity."

Keywords : Partido Acción Nacional; Partido de la Revolución Democrática; candidate selection; presidency.