Mexico Political Structure

Mexico Political Structure

2006 Mexico Presidential Election:
PAN-Felipe Calderon vs. PDR-Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Mexican politics can best be described as a consistent revolution stained by political corruption and charismatic politicians. Though Mexico is currently a Federal Democratic Republic with a congressional system there remains a tremendous amount of power within the Executive branch where as the President is both the Head of State and supreme commander of Mexican armed forces. Mexico considered as a semi-authoritarian state does have a division between the Federal Government and State Governments. The constituent states are required to have a republican form of government based on a congressional system but like unlike most federalist systems the executive branch specifically the president absorbs more power. The Legislative Branch or Congress of the Union is a dual representation system where as some member of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies are directly elected by a majority vote in their respective districts and the rest of the members are allocated by proportional representation, on the basis of each party’s popular vote.
Before going into detail about the most current presidential election it is important to understand the history of presidential elections and political climate of Mexico prior to 2006. Prior to the 2000 election the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) had dominated the political arena after the Great Depression. With the end of the Revolution and the creation of the Constitution of 1917 the PRI has dominated the political spotlight. The PRI having been the incumbent political party in office since 1929 all the way until 2000 was historically ended when PAN (National Action Party; conservative) political leader Vicente Fox, took the 2000 election with 43% of the popular vote.[1] This leads into an interesting question as to why the PRI was in power for more than half a century. Evidence and records suggests that voters are more willing to...

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