Continuity and Rupture in the Mexican Political System

Abstract

The way in which the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)¹ has monopolized power in Mexico for the bulk of the twentieth century continues to be a point of fascination for analysts of Latin American politics. The ruling party’s stability, durability and longevity are remarkable, and these characteristics have set it apart from other governments in Latin America. Even on an international scale, the PRI has outlived all other revolutionary governments this century. During the 1950s and 1960s, visiting scholars to Mexico returned optimistic about the direction in which Mexican politics were heading, and they praised the social and economic progress being made.² However, after 1968, when the Mexican army massacred hundreds of protesting students at Tlatelolco in Mexico City, there was a growing revulsion against this former optimism. From around the late 1960s to the present, many analysts agree that the best classification is an ‘inclusionary authoritarian’ system.³ Vargas Llosa’s oft-quoted description of the PRI as the ‘perfect dictatorship’, due to its ability to adapt to new situations and to maintain control over society through a façade of tolerance, remains one of the most apt clichés used by observers to describe the PRI.⁴