Democrats’ profiles in Mexico: a look on the democratic rationalities in Mexico

Abstract

Studies on political culture identify relational patterns between behavior and institutions according to values and individual reasoning. However there is a diversity of expressions about the meaning of democracy in public-opinion polls, which raises an interrogation: why don’t citizens defend values traditionally linked with democracy in spite of the fact that they openly support this form of government? To answer this question this article proposes, on one hand, that individual valuations and attitudes towards any regime type are dynamic and contradictory, and, on the other, that citizens do not stick to democratic values on equal measure and intensity. In order to do so, this article outlines some critiques on the axiologic-rationality paradigmand establishes the persistence of multi-rationalities in a democracy. Using the results of the Encuesta Nacional de Cultura Política on three variables: 1) freedom of association, 2) freedom of speech and 3) political pluralism support, we check the democrats profiles in Mexico.