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This paper analyses recent changes in Mexican political parties' competition for national presidency, with an emphasis on July's 2006 Congressional and Presidential elections. The latter revealed a transition from an old competitive ballot race focused on the antithetic duet authoritarianism-democracy, to what could be called topical elections, focused on issues concerning presidential candidates' public policy proposals in which citizens, civil associations, and nongovernmental organizations, among other groups, play an active role. With this purpose in mind, the paper starts with a brief exposition of the parties' core contentions, including debates such as that around the last election reform aiming at pushing the ballot system towards fairer and more transparent elections, the challenges ahead for the party system, and other relevant contextual, political and socio-economic issues. Secondly, the evolution of the new terms of the competition and its structural changes are examined, in order to better understand our main concern here, i.e., the transition to a topical election contest focused on candidates' public policy proposals. Thirdly, the candidates' main proposals in crucial priority areas are presented and assessed. Finally, a global reflection is made on the meaning of these elections, on the context that has prevailed alongside, and on the uncertainty and competitiveness that have characterized them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to assess the implications and the own character of the crisis of representation in Mexico. Once the topic framed and the long-term dynamics of Mexican political elites presented, this paper will attempt to understand why, despite the pluraliation of the party system, there remain many questions about the truly democratic nature of the Mexican political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of the Mexican regime implies changes in the basic relationship between corporate control execution and ways of "controlling conflict" in the metropolitan areas. This paper sustains the hypothesis of a "decisional crisis" that is conceived as a series of transformations of the organization, and the exercise of social and institutional leadership in recent years (1991-2002) as the constitution of a "new" political mode. Through the review of recent literature and three databases, it is proved that in public service areas such as water, these "new" leaderships favor gap and renovation scenarios in the practice of state legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a reflection on the current status of democracy in Mexico. For this purpose, it has been based on an analytical reading of interpretations to the Mexican transition. They highlight the sui generis and unfinished nature of such transition, whose completion has not entailed a clear discontinuity between the authoritarian phase and the democratic consolidation phase. Our approach consists in showing that the current limitations of Mexican democracy, which are in part identifiable as consolidation issues, leave doubts about the arrival of democracy to Mexico. This is illustrated around the supposed plurality of the party system, to which the actors and power structures have adapted, and around the weak consolidation of the constitutional state and the institutions, threatened by the dramatic escalation of organized crime. The combination of authoritarian recomposition and such new threats is not a mere authoritarian inheritance, in what is a supposed democratic context, nor does it agree with the hypothesis of an unconcluded transition. It rather implies fleeing forwards, which in itself oscillates between democracy and its denial as well as between past legacies and a badly assimilated change, thus forcing us to review the analytical model for transitions to democracy which is relevant in part, but far too linear and minimizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]