Courting Democracy in Mexico: Party Strategies and Electoral Institutions - Softcover

Eisenstadt, Todd A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521035880 ISBN 13: 9780521035880

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Pitting opposition activists' post-electoral conflicts against their usage of regime-constructed electoral courts, this study of Mexico's gradual transition to democracy addresses the puzzle of why its opposition parties failed to use these autonomous courts. The electoral courts were established to mitigate Mexico's often violent post-electoral disputes at key moments of the country's 27-year democratic transition, and had formal guarantees of court independence from the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI).

About this title

Book Description:

"Courting Democracy in Mexico" is perhaps the most comprehensive explanation to date of Mexico's gradual transition to democracy, written from a novel perspective which pits opposition activists' post-electoral conflicts against their usage of regime-constructed electoral courts at the center of the democratization process. The book addresses the puzzle of why, during key moments of Mexico's 27-year democratic transition, opposition parties failed to use autonomous electoral courts established to mitigate the country's often violent post-electoral disputes, despite foraml guarantees of court independence from the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI).

Review:

"...a detailed and thorough account of the gradual transition to democracy in Mexico that focuses on the roles played by the two main opposition parties...provides a wealth of data...makes important contributions to our understanding of the complex and varied conditions under which democracy can be implemented, especially in his discussion of the interplay between formal and informal institutions." M.T. Kenney, Austin Peay State University, Choice

"Eisenstadt's book is a remarkably detailed and comprehensive analysis of Mexico's "protracted" move away from a single-party authoritarian system." Latin American Politics and Society, Emily Edmonds-Poli, University of San Diego

"Meticulously researched and theoretically rich, Eisenstadt's book provides the most extensive account we are likely to see of the interaction between national-level elites--from both regime and opposition--and party activists at the state and local levels as the opposition parties began to seriously contest elections in the late 1980s and 1990s." Political Science Quarterly, Joseph L. Klesner, Kenyon College

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0521035880
• ISBN 13: 9780521035880
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376