Mexican Democratization through the Zedillo"s Administration 1994-2000

On July 2 2000, one of the most important elections in Mexican history took place. In this presidential election, A new chapter in Mexican politics was written as, Vicente Fox of the PAN defeated Francisco Labastida Ochoa of the PRI; marking the first significant leap forward in democratization in the country since the Mexican revolution at the tum of the twentieth century. The victory of the PAN put an end to the seventy-one-year rule of the PRI, that began in 1929. Few in Mexico had expected that the hegemonic PRI would ever lose power or that the presidential candidate of the PAN could actually defeat "the sixth monarchy" of the PRI by such a wide margin. This case is alarming because the Mexican president is very powerful in many aspects of party politics and body politics: from policy-making to policy executions as well as from legal control to administrative control. Thus The peaceful transition of power would not have been possible without the president"s tacit and explicit-consent. Since he held an almost absolute control over the result of the elections. In an effort to identify the factors behind this democratic transition of power in 2000, it is therefore important to explore the presidency of Emesto Zedillo, (who remained in office from 1994 to 2000), in terms of the three political ideas: legality, citizen sovereignty and democracy. This study will examine these ideas in connection with the economic crisis in 1994 and the political reform of 1996 that preceded President Zedillo"s term in office