Why rules matter: the formal rules of candidate selection and leadership section in the PRI, 1978-1996

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the formal rules of candidate and leadership selection of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), both before significant electoral opposition and after (1988 being the dividing line). This is an important exercise for several reasons: firstly, it is crucial to investigate whether and haw the heretofore dominant party has met the challenge of uncertainty at the ballot box in reforming its internal organization; secondly, the work will clarify the rule-based mechanisms that the President of Mexico and the top leadership of the PRI have used in controlling the ability of the state party leaders and activists (and governors) to participate in selecting candidates to run for office and leaders to run the Party; and thirdly, the fact that the very statutes of the PRI allow for enormous vertical control over lower level members will point out the necessity of reforming the rules of the internal party game so that the grass-roots activists ─those who, in a real sense, do the work of winning elections─ can participate more fully in the life of the PRI.