Mexico is a multi-party system. Meaning there are more than two dominant political parties. Mexico has three dominant parties the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). They also have some smaller parties formed by local coalitions with the big three. Following the 2003 election, Mexico had six nationally recognized political parties. However, in terms of their congressional representation and share of the national vote, only the PRI, the PAN and the PRD can be considered major parties.
A little about the National Action Party it is known by the acronym PAN. It is a conservative and Christian Democratic party and one of the three main political parties. PAN was founded in 1939 after the cristero insurgency lost the Cristero War. They were looking for a peaceful way to bring about change in the country and to achieve political representation. In the 2000 presidential elections Vicente Fox Quesada, the candidate for PAN, was elected president of Mexico.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as PRI, is a Mexican political party that held power for more than 70 years. The party was created because of Plutarco Elias Calles’s efforts to stop the violent struggle for power between the victorious factions of the Mexican Revolution, and guarantee the peaceful transmission of power for members of the party. The party held every major political position for six decades.
The Party of the Democratic Revolution, known as the PRD, was founded in Mexico City on May 5, 1989. It was founded by including many smaller left-wing parties. The PRD has a strong electoral presence in the central and southern Mexico. It has maintained control over the Federal District (Mexico City) ever since the city’s voters were first allowed to elect local authorities in 1997.
Voting Rights in Mexico
Voting in Mexico is very similar to voting here in the United States. You have to be at least 18 years old and be a citizen. However, since the 1990’s eligible voters have had to visit an electoral office and be registered into the census in order to obtain a voting carded. Which is issued by the National Electoral Institute. These voting cards are government-issued photo IDs the citizens are required to produce at polling stations in order to vote. In 2005 the PRI, the PAN and the PRD agreed to permit Mexican citizens living outside the country to vote in the Presidential election. In the 2006 elections 45,555 votes came from Mexicans who lived in the United States.
Contrary to the beliefs widely held in the U.S. regarding the nature and function of Mexico’s legal system, Mexico does enjoy a highly evolved and organized legal system, which with few exceptions is functional. The origins of Mexico’s legal system are both ancient and classical, based on the Greek, Roman and French legal systems, and the Mexican system shares more in common with other legal systems throughout the world (especially those in Latin America and most of continental Europe) than does the U.S. legal system. U.S. business people and foreign owned corporations doing business in Mexico must directly and indirectly deal with the Mexican legal system, even if they do not have an actual business presence in Mexico. They might encounter Mexico’s system through an international contract, which they enter into with a Mexican company or individual, even if the contract is wholly performable in the U.S. Many such contracts are negotiated covering the distribution of products, the granting of franchises, or the transfer of technology, among other legal relationships.
Mexico’s Civil Law System VS U.S. Common Law System
To better understand the Mexican legal system, it is useful to compare it to the U.S. legal system. A fundamental difference between the two legal systems is that Mexico is a so-called “civil law” country while the U.S. is a “common law” country. The U.S. common law system is based on the case law and statutory law of England and the American colonies before the American Revolution. As the name implies, the traditional common law system emphasizes case law, customs and usage rather than legislative enactments. In contrast, Mexico’s civil law system is derived primarily from Roman law as set forth in the compilation of codes and statutes of the Emperor Justinian, called Corpus Juris Civilis, and later refined in the French or Napoleonic Code of 1804. Interestingly, the development of Mexican commercial law drew heavily on Italian law. Mexico’s legal system is also influenced by colonial law (the Spanish and “Indian” law of Spain’s colonization in the areas that became Mexico and other present day Latin American countries), which was a highly formal body of law, including specific collections of not only laws but customs or accepted legal practices, that required the use of intricate regulations and elaborate writings associated with every important act of one’s life, such as birth or marriage, and canon law, or religious law, issued by the Catholic Church. This distinction between two systems based on their respective origins, along with the unique traditions and practices stemming from these different origins, is today the clearest and most important distinction.
Classifying the Government
Some of the values Mexico places on the government and the people in the society can be understood by many scholars use Hofstede’s Five Cultural Forces model. Hofstede is a Dutch social psychologist and notably established a cultural dimensions theory. Though it is not necessary to focus on each force for this blog post, the information does help determine government classification. Mexico can be classified as a collectivist society and it is reflective of the government’s approach. Since the government is a multiparty system it has democratic and totalitarian elements to the system. Holistically the government should be viewed as more historically totalitarian. When looking at opening a restaurant these indicators are important for deciding which region provides the least strict government regulation and social avoidances so that the business will thrive successfully. The government has gone through era’s of self rule and dictatorship historically. Present day mexico is in a state of fractured political uncertainty amongst its citizens. Failure of undelivered political promises of the current administration and the loss of the value for the peso have changed the political climate immensely. Though many individuals may encourage the return of the PRI system, the current setup does not resemble the structure of its previous form.