La democracia: asignaturas pendientes

Abstract

This article makes a historical review to analize the way electoral reforms took place in the last forty years. Three periods are clearly distinguished: the “ilimited protectionism” (López Mateos-Echeverría); the “restrained opposition” (López Portillo-Salinas de Gortari) and “definitive electoral reform” (Zedillo). The article also examines pending issues which are still to be resolved during the processes of democratization of Mexico, such as the the division of powers characteristic of federalism, the organization of pre-campaigns, the extension of suffrage, legislative re-election and constitutional engineering.