Mexican Democracy Essays - Politics Of Mexico,

Mexican Democracy Jim Sullivan Mexican Democracy When one thinks of Mexico the first thing that often comes to mind are all of the old Westerns where the bad guys would run to Mexico to escape and good guys were attacked by desperados and also government troops. This stereotype is not too far off from the actual political situation in Mexico. If one were to look at the history of this troubled nation one would find a universal lack of stable government and a tendency towards military run dictatorships. This comes from a turbulent history fraught with foreign influence and puppet governments. The most recent foreign intervention was in the 1850s when the French sent troops over to Mexico in order to establish a puppet government under Archduke Maxamillian of Austria. His reign was short-lived and revolutionaries executed him after his surrender in May of 1867. The revolutionary leader Benito Juarez then assumed the presidency. His reign only lasted five years until another revolution lead by Porfiro Diaz. Diaz was the leader in Mexi can politics for 35 years until he was finally overthrown. This progression didnt end with Diaz, his successor, Francisco Madero, was overthrown and executed by General Victoriano Huerta, a brutal military dictator who was in power for a short time then overthrown in a new wave of revolutions. This flow of leaders coming to power then being overthrown has lead to a very unstable Mexican political structure. The trend of the losers in an election starting a revolution in response continued until General Lazaro Cardenas came to power in 1934 and became the first president in Mexican history to serve out a full term. The next president, Avila Camacho was the one to organize the PRI, the political party that continues to dominate in Mexico even today. The problems with the present Mexican political system are many in number. First historically the solution to political dispute has always been to start a rebellion. This leads to an extremely unstable situation where candidates may be intimidated out of running for office for fear of their lives. Next even when there has been a stable government the governments have been weak and often fail to accomplish any real progress. Finally the biggest obstacle to true democracy in Mexico is that the average person has had very little representation in the government. This is due to the fact that this current Mexican governmental structure, in place since the 30s has been dominated by one party, the PRI, and has been essentially a one party system. For the common people this means they can either not vote or vote for the party they may or may not support. To remedy this situation is not an easy task. The current Mexican system is a federal-presidential system, using first past the post elections. The mostly FPP system is what has allowed the PRI to stay in power because it is very hard for new parties to win significant numbers of seats. The first amendment to the Mexican system would be the electoral system. To gain entrance to the political sphere in the current system a party may win some seats with the small PR but still must win a majority of votes in a given district or districts. This is very difficult for a new party who people would be afraid to support due to the fact that they dont know it or that they may not vote for because they know it will not win. My recommendation would be to change to a 50/50 mix of first past the post and proportional representation in the Mexican legislature. Going to a 50/50 mix is better than a total PR switch because total PR often leads to political instability with coalition and minority gove rnments. In a country such as Mexico that has a history of instability any new elements of conflict would be bad. With the new electoral system smaller parties that already exist such as local parties or current fringe parties could gain power in the legislature and force the PRI to change and adapt to the will of the people. The increased diversity in the legislature would lead to some conflict but in the long run it