Mexico’s democracy is backsliding and there is only one person responsible for this: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). It is not that he is deliberately trying to overturn the democratic strides the country took during its transition (which began in 1977). The problem is that his political principles, which he refers to as “what I hold dearest in my life,” are not entirely compatible with the workings of a modern democracy —namely, a formula to elect term-limited governments and whose outcome is uncertain.
To observe how this is the case, let us examine Mexico’s recent political development. Between 1977 and 1996 the country transitioned from an authoritarian regime under the hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to a multi-party democracy. Different reasons have been advanced to explain it. First, the international context marked by the democratic winds blowing especially in Southern Europe (Portugal and Spain), which later blew strongly in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Second, the country’s internal politics marked by guerrilla activity and the public embarrassment the PRI regime endured when its 1976 presidential candidate, José López Portillo, ran unopposed. And as times changed, the PRI allowed for a modest political opening with the passing in 1977 of the Federal Law of Political Organizations and Electoral Procedures (LOPPE).
