1. By: Anna, Amar, and Will LINKAGE INSTITUTIONS IN MEXICO

2. Amar Hodzic POLITICAL PARTIES

3.  The three largest political parties in Mexico today are PRI, PAN, and PRD.  For the most of the 20 th 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. POLITICAL PARTIES

4. 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

5.  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 SPECIFIC (PARTIDO REVOLUCIONARIO INSTITUCIONAL)

6.  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 PRI CHARACTERIZATION

7.  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 SPECIFIC (THE NATIONAL ACTION PARTY)

8.  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 PAN PLATFORMS/CHARACTERIS TICS

9.  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 SPECIFIC (THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTIONARY PARTY)

10.  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 PRD TROUBLES

11. Will Wagner ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND RECENT ELECTIONS

12. 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 President and Congress

13. 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 Upper House

14. 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 Lower House

15. 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. The Election of 2006 Controversy

16. 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 Corruption in Elections

17. Anna Honnold LINKAGE INSTITUTIONS AND MEDIA

18.  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 CORPORATIST STRUCTURE

19.  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 POWER OF INTEREST GROUPS

20.  Peasant organizations encouraged by PRI  Ejido system: 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 RURAL ORGANIZATIONS

21. These groups have strengthene d and become more independent They have transformed the political culture and increased the depth of civil society. URBAN GROUP S

22.  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 THE MEDIA

23.  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 MEDIA INDEPENDENCE

24. The End