The never-ending Mexican democratization: a brief historical analytic framework

Abstract

On the year 2000, after 80 years of single-party rule by the PRI, a different political organization won the Mexican presidential elections, with many political analysts labelling this phenomenon as a “democratic transition”; thus implying this was the first democratic government ruling the country after many decades of a state-party system of government. In 2018, a new political movement, known as the National Regeneration Party Movement (MORENA) defeated both the PRI and PAN as mainstream, historical parties. This article focuses on analyzing this electoral democratization process in Mexico. Hence, the following questions are posed for discussion: Did Mexico moved towards full democracy in 2000? Did citizen participation have an impact on governmental decisions from 2000 to 2018? Did the National Electoral Institute (INE in Spanish), as the organization responsible for organizing and providing official results, earned nationwide credibility from citizens regarding these processes?  
Considering the comprehensive time period of this analysis, the crux of this article is exploring the performance of the National Electoral Institute in these political processes, as it represents the official governmental vision of electoral democracy in Mexico. Also, this essay looks at the political and economic context of how democracy has evolved in Mexico during the second half of the twentieth century.
Firstly, we introduce a conceptual framework on democracy and the electoral authority; then we analyze the INE’s performance in electoral democracy as the key aspect of this work and we close with some thoughts on the future of Mexican democracy.