Although the nationwide elections were free from an overwhelming amount of secret interference, local elections were still regulated by the Federal Electoral Tribunal-a body formed under the IFE in the 1990s to ensure ballot regulation and to solve electoral disputes regarding a free and fair process. While this win symbolized an evolution from authoritarian rule towards legitimate democracy, it appeared to accomplish little real change. This hope and the quest for democratic progress was highlighted in the historic 2000 presidential election when the PRI lost the office for the first time in 70 years to Vicente Fox, of the PAN. Hope emerged for an authentic democracy in a nation normally overrun by corruption. Furthering this movement towards democracy, in the 1997 legislative elections, the PRI lost its absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in its history. This law created autonomy for the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) and granted public financing to political parties in order to level the domestic political playing field. Furthering this democratic trend was President Ernesto Zedillo’s push to pass the 1996 Federal Electoral Law, which instituted independent electoral institutions. These events resulted in the formation of the multi-party system that currently exists in Mexico. Following the election, the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) essentially split off from the PRI, while the conservative National Action Party (PAN) greatly expanded its constituency. A multi-party system was formed as a result of a highly publicized scandal that followed the controversial presidential election of Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1988. The combined movements from the people and the administration translated into the integration of democratic practices in the government itself. Together, the creation of human rights groups across the nation produced a civil society centered on the struggle for increased political and economic rights, as well as on the guarantee of legitimate democratic processes and a firm rule of law. Other grassroots movements supported such advancements at the Federal level. Not only was the body given the task of enforcing the nation’s freedom of information law at the Federal level, but it was also meant to grant requests from the public citizenry. Yet another sign of progress was the creation of the Federal Institute of Transparency and Access to Information in 2002. One example of the movement was the 2001 establishment of the National Women’s Institute (INMUJERES), a government agency whose purpose was to promote gender equality throughout the nation. The PRI’s iron stronghold began to loosen when a civic-cultural movement manifested in response to the economic struggles breaking out across the country. Thus, this militarized rule prevented the authentic practice of democracy by often nullifying what should have been the effective powers of the electorate.
Included in the injustices promoted by the PRI through manipulation of the voting system, the party also dominated Mexico’s politics on both the national and state levels. Though its peremptory rule wore a deceptive democratic disguise, with all of its forms and trappings conveyed through elections and campaigns, it was largely a façade. For most of the twentieth century, Mexico was ruled by the authoritarian-minded Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), a monopolistic political grouping infamous for imposing a clientelistic and patronage-based social order. Mexican citizens must work with the government in order to create long-lasting changes that will promote basic democratic processes and the institutions through which such processes perform.Īlthough Mexico’s 1917 constitution called for a democratic government, democracy did not even begin to take shape in Mexico until the late 1900s.The winner of the 2012 presidential election is unlikely to solve Mexico’s many institutional problems immediately.However, even after the establishment of a multi-party system, the PRI retains a stronghold from behind the scenes.