Blog #10: Mexico’s vanquished ruling party, once the ‘perfect dictatorship,’ poised for comeback

Mexico's government is a democracy but only recently has it been a "true" democracy. Mexico has been a democratic government since 1917 but has for over three fourths of its existence been ruled by the same party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). It was founded in 1929 and has won every election up until 2000. During this time they had many supporters and opposers. The PRI is known for a student massacre in 1968 where students were promoting democracy and for a vote scandal in 1988 that illegally allowed them to gain a lead in the election. PRI is also known for maintaining social stability and the party that has enjoyed the more democratic style government has been criticized for attacking organized crime and "waking the angry beast." Mexico's 2012 presidential campaigns have begun and PRI is making a come back since their loss in 2000.


This particular style of government is interesting because they appear to be a democracy on the outside but internally they are struggling with a authoritarian style of government. They have elections and set terms that the president can serve (one six-year term) but the PRI was able to control the government for 70 years before 2000.  This sounds more like a dictatorship and what is more interesting is that many people would rather choose the PRI than the opposing parties. This kind of dictatorship has a different appearance than normal. When I reported on the Syria dictatorship there was extreme bloodshed and I could not help but be opposed to Bashar al Assad. It is difficult to choose a definite side on this situation because the current president, Felipe Calderon, has bloodshed on his hands also. The President received major criticism after 47, 000 people are dead due to the fight against organized crime. This causes me to bring up the question again, is democracy good for everyone?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexicos-vanquished-ruling-party-the-perfect-dictatorship-poised-for-presidential-comeback/2012/03/30/gIQAWHr6kS_story.html