Abstract

TORRES RODRIGUEZ, Ignacio Daniel  and  AHUACTZIN MARTINEZ, Carlos Enrique. Democracy and electoral reforms in Mexico. Derecho glob. Estud. sobre derecho justicia [online]. 2019, vol.4, n.11, pp.143-162.  Epub Oct 07, 2020. ISSN 2448-5136.  https://doi.org/10.32870/dgedj.v0i11.186.

Abstract: In Mexico, the electoral arena has experienced substantial transformations throughout the last decades. It has changed from an overwhelming stage of domination by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to a competitive struggle between diverse political parties, where pre-electoral coalitions (PECS) and political alternation are a recurrent phenomenon. This paper seeks to explain the switch from an hegemonic party system (with authoritarian characteristics) to a democratic multi-party system, by stating that the Mexican Public Administration´s modernization, but especially the electoral reforms, have favored a phased configuration of a larger (and more competitive) number of parties and neutral electoral institutions. The argument is built upon the analysis of several documentary research, based on the 1977, 1986, 1990, 1996, and 2014 electoral reforms, federal and local electoral results, concluding with the Mexican political system´s development implications.

Keywords : democracy; political system; presidentialism; electoral reforms; pre-electoral coalitions.