DOI: 10.53557/elecciones
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¿Puede revertirse la erosión democrática? Estrategias de los partidos de oposición en México contra las reformas electorales del presidente López Obrador

Can democratic erosion be reversed? Opposition parties’ strategies in Mexico against President López Obradors’ electoral reforms

Authors

  • Esperanza Palma Orcid
    Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco
  • DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.53557/Elecciones.2024.v23n27.03

    • Abstract

    The actions and strategies of the opposition in contexts of democratic erosion have not been properly analyzed in the literature about contemporary processes of autocratization. Most studies focus on the authoritarian actions undertaken by leaderships and parties that come to power, but little is known about the actors who resist these processes. The main question in this article is whether opposition can reverse a process of democratic erosion, by analyzing the Mexican case starting from López Obrador’s triumph and his Cuarta Transformación project in 2018. The president and his party, the Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional, aim to change the rules and democratic institutions created during the transition and replace them with others that weaken checks and balances, autonomous institutions, and pluralism. In 2022, the president proposed two electoral reforms aimed at changing the bases of representation and restructure the electoral body with the purpose of controlling the organization of elections and favoring his party in future elections. The objective is to analyze the strategies of the opposition parties in Mexico and their alliances with autonomous institutions and citizen organizations to contain these reforms. To achieve this, I revisit some studies on opposition strategies and carry out an empirical analysis of these strategies based on interviews with opposition leaders and official documents.


    The Mexican case shows that the erosion process has become slower and more gradual thanks to the combined action of party oppositions, social protest, and intervention by the Supreme Court of Justice, which has allowed the opposition to achieve partial victories. However, these actions have not been able to reverse the ongoing erosion process. This will depend on the electoral performance of the opposition in the 2024 elections and whether they can gain majority in Congress.

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    • Author Biography

    Esperanza Palma, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco

    Professor-researcher at the Department of Sociology of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco, Mexico City. Member of the Network of Political Scientists - #NoSinMujeres.