Abstract

SOLIS CRUZ, Jesús. Electoral democracy and communal politics in the Sierra of Michoacan State. Cuicuilco. Rev. cienc. antropol. [online]. 2017, vol.24, n.68, pp.177-204. ISSN 2448-8488.

In political modernity, suffrage as an expression of political will has gradually taken center stage. As a value of electoral democracy, it became essential to be a part of the projects of construction of nation states. In the case of Mexico, in recent history there have been serious challenges to democratic electoral rules and processes. However, it is also true to say that there has been a move towards gradual legitimacy and the acceptance of the direct vote as a formula for political cohesion, together with an expansion of the political-partisan options. This process, over the last three decades, on the local level, has been accompanied by a wide-ranging social mobilization and a revival of political practices that place communal values and self-government as a central pillar of public life. This paper, based on ethnographic data on an indigenous community and the electoral statistics of the municipality to which it belongs, in the State of Michoacan, examines the intersection of local political practices with democratic elections. It deliberates, from a local viewpoint, on the construction of politics as a space of experience.

Keywords : Democracy; elections; political parties; communal politics; Michoacan.