Three exits from the Mexican Institutional Revolutionary Party: internal ruptures and political stability

Abstract

In the first section of the paper, the three ruptures will be examined. Within this section, I will examine why no ruptures occurred from 1952 to 1986. Then, to complete the comparative analysis, I will also concentrate on a non-case, or a presidential succession in which a dissatisfied, or rejected pre-candidate for the nomination, did not leave the regime's boundaries and run against the official Party's candidate. This way, it will be easier to identify the reasons which led to the decisions of those who did exit. The case chosen is the presidential succession of 1976, primarily to test for the importance of economic crises and support from powerful political outsiders, mainly the large-scale capitalists of the North. Finally, in the conclusion I will return to the question of political stability