Taking on Goliath: The Emergence of a New Left Party and the Struggle for Democracy in Mexico
Taking on Goliath analyzes the formation and decline of the most successful opposition party challenge to Mexico's long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which, until 1988, had ruled unchallenged for more than sixty years. The emergence of this new left opposition in 1988 shattered the myth of PRI invincibility. However, its failure to capitalize on its initial success raises intriguing questions about the relationship between party creation and consolidation and about the sources of party system change and democratization. This book is the only major study in English of the origins and trajectory of the PRD, the party that today represents the unified Mexican left. Kathleen Bruhn draws on extensive field research, including interviews of major participants, local case studies of party organization, documentary evidence from party statutes and reports, and newspaper archives, as well as a statistical analysis of the basis of the left vote. The insights Bruhn offers into the different conditions that affect the functioning of political parties in their emergence and in their later consolidation apply broadly to many developing countries, but they especially help us understand the possibilities for greater democracy in Mexico today.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:027101587X
ISBN13:9780271015873
Release Date:November 1996
Publisher:Penn State University Press
Length:384 Pages
Weight:1.15 lbs.
Dimensions:0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Good primer in opposition party politics in Mexico
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 27 years ago
This book outlines the changes that have taken place in Mexican politics since the 1988 presidential election there, focusing specifically on the development of the PRD from being a personalistic vehicle for Cuauhtemoc Cardenas to being a true political party of the left. Bruhn places this development in the context of the changes in the broader political environment which have been occurring in Mexico and which have facilitated the emergence of the PRD. Specifically, she addresses the challenges that the PRD has faced in attaining internal consolidation among the PRD's component parts and external institutionalization in the one-party dominant system. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Mexican party system.
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