Senate recruitment and party organizational change in México's PRI

Abstract

The formerly-hegemonic PRI has been tranformed due to rising levels of electoral competition. This paper compares the professional profiles of the PRI´s senate candidates before and after the on-set of electoral competition to understand how the party´s leaders reacted to the shock in the external environment that electoral competition represents. During the hegemonic regime, the PRI´s senate candidates were national politicians, who responded to the needs of the regime, not to the demands of the ballot box. Since competition became a danger senate candidates have become far more local political figures who are considered “better” candidates because they have demonstrated their competitive advantage and local roots. This is the first work on Mexico that uses data on candidates to understand changes in legislative recruitment and their consequences for political representation.

El PRI ha sido transformado debido a niveles más altos de competencia electoral. Este trabajo compara los perfiles profesionales de los candidatos al Senado antes y después de la época de competencia para ver si se está decentralizando el poder y control dentro de la organización partidista del PRI.