Linkage Institutions in Mexico

Linkage Institutions in Mexico By: Anna, Amar, and Will

Political Parties Amar Hodzic

Political Parties • The three largest political parties in Mexico today are PRI, PAN, and PRD. • For the most of the 20th century, Mexico was virtually a one-party state  until 2000 all presidents belonged to the PRI, as well as many other government officials. • Over the past 20 years other parties have begun to gain power, and so today competitive elections are a reality in Mexico.

Latest General Election (2012)-Party Distribution • PRI currently has the greatest number of members in both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate • The 2012 presidential election winner is a member of the PRI Party

PRI Specific (PartidoRevolucionarioInstitucional) • In power continuously from 1920 to 2000 • Founded as a coalition of elites who agreed to work out their conflicts through compromise • By forming a political party that encompassed all political elites, they could agree to trade favors and pass power around from one “cacique” to another.

PRI Characterization • Corporatist Structure -Interest groups were woven into the structure of the party. The party has ultimate authority, but voices are “heard” by bringing interest groups under the party. This structure is NOT democratic, but allowed input into the government from party-selected groups whose leaders often held cabinet positions when Mexico was a one party state. -More recently, peasant and labor organizations have been represented in the party and hold positions of responsibility, but these groups are carefully selected. • Patron-Client System -The party traditionally gets its support from rural areas where the patron-client system is still in control. As long as Mexico remained rural based, PRI had a solid, thorough organization that managed to gather overwhelming support. Supported primarily by: small town/rural, less educated, older, and poorer citizens

PAN Specific (The National Action Party) • Founded in 1939  making it the oldest opposition party in Mexico • Created to represent business interests opposed to centralization and anti-clericism (PRI’s practice of keeping church out of politics). • Began winning elections in the north in 1990s.

PAN Platforms/Characteristics • Regional autonomy • Less government intervention in the economy • Clean/Fair elections • Good rapport with the Catholic Church • Support for private and religious education • PAN is considered to be PRI’s opposition to the right • PAN’s candidates have won presidency in 2000 and 2006, and in the midterm elections it had more deputies and senators in the legislature than any other party • Supported primarily by: northern, middle-class professionals, urban, better educated, and religious

PRD Specific (the democratic revolutionary party) • PRI’s opposition on the left • Gained influence in 1988, where presidential candidate Cardenas won 31.1% of the official vote and the PRD captured 139 sears in the Chamber of Deputies • Has trouble defining a left of center alternative to the market-centered policies set by PRI • Appeals to younger, politically active, middle class, and small town/urban voters

PRD Troubles • Party has weakened since 1988 • Their leaders have been divided on issues and have sometimes publically quarrelled • Party criticized for poor organization with beliefs and leaders • Significant gains in the legislative elections of 2006, but the disarray since has caused the party to lose more than half of its seats in the lower house in 2009

Electoral System and Recent Elections Will Wagner

The President and Congress • President: The president is elected by the “first past the post system” with no run off election required. The president may serve one six year term and must be a natural born citizen, over 35 years old, and must have been a resident of Mexico for at least 20 years. • Congress: Also called the Congress of the Union. A dual election system in which they are elected through “first past the post” and proportional representation. A recent reform in 1986 allowed more proportional representation within congress. Members serve three year terms with no reelection.

The Upper House • Mexico’s upper house is the Senate. • Mexico has 31 states and elects three senators from each state. • Two are elected by majority vote while the third is determined by which party receives the second highest number of votes. • Thirty-two Senate seats are also determined nationally by a system of proportional representation that divides the seats according to the number of votes cast for each party. • Serve 6 year terms that cannot be reelected.

The Lower House • The lower house is referred to as the Chamber of Deputies. • 300 of the seats within the Chamber of Deputies are determined by plurality within single-member districts. • 200 other seats are elected through proportional representation. • Serve three year terms that cannot be reelected.

The Election of 2006 Controversy • Considered to be the most controversial election in Mexican history. • Was mainly between PAN candidate Felipe Calderon and PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. • The official votes claimed Calderon had won by 230,000 votes, only about a half of a percent point difference between himself and Obrador. • Obrador claimed the votes were not correctly counted and demanded a recount before leaving office. The election tribunal investigated the allegations. • The election was held in balance for over two months as votes were recounted, yet only about 9% of the precincts had recounted votes. • After months of rallies and protests by Obrador supporters, the tribunal council announced that the recount had not changed the outcome of the election and that Calderon had won.

Corruption in Elections • During the election of 2012 between Enrique Pena supporting the the PRI and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador supporting PRD, Obrador once again claimed that he had lost due to fraud. • This time the fraud was more clearly shown as Pena’s PRI party gave out pesos to citizens in return for their ballots which prevented them from casting their votes. • This occurred in mainly poorer and more rural regions of the country. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as46S1D8V4Q

Linkage Institutions and Media Anna Honnold

Corporatist Structure • Responds pragmatically to demands of interest groups through accommodation and co-optation • The result has been few serious conflicts, but when they have occurred, solutions are found • Because of this, Mexico’s development of separate civil society has been slow

Power of interest groups • There is state corporatism in Mexico; it has allowed the business elites to become wealthy • Listen and respond to demands: wage levels for unionized workers grew fairly consistently between 1940 and 1982 • The power of union bosses is declining since unions are weaker and union members are more independent • With PAN in control, business interests may exhibit more characteristics of neo-corporatism

Rural organizations • Peasant organizations encouraged by PRI • Ejidosystem: grants land from the Mexican government to the organizations themselves • Groups are demanding more independence • Have joined with other groups to promote better education, health services, and environmental protections

Urban Groups These groups have strengthened and become more independent They have transformed the political culture and increased the depth of civil society.

The media • When PRI was in control, the media had little power to criticize the government or to influence public opinion • Government rewarded media that supported them with special favors • Subsidized salaries of those who strongly supported the PRI • Mostly revenue came from government-placed advertisements – couldn’t afford to openly criticize the government

Media Independence • Became more independent in 1980’s as PRI lost power • Now there is access to international media (CNN and BBC) • News magazines now offer opinions of government initiatives • Freedom of the press during the Fox administration: publicized “Toallagate” which was a scandal involving overpriced towels • “Comes y te vas” (eat and leave)- criticized President Fox for these instructions to Fidel Castro • Now have access to a much broader range of political opinions

The End

Linkage Institutions in Mexico