Contemporary Mexican Politics - Softcover

Emily Edmonds-Poli is associate professor of political science and international relations at the University of San Diego. David A. Shirk is associate professor of political science and director of the MA in International Relations program at the University of San Diego.

This third edition of Contemporary Mexican Politics traces Mexico's history from pre-Columbian times to Spanish colonial rule, independence, US conquests of Mexican territory, the Mexican Revolution, and a slow transition to current democratic government. Considerable focus is on the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party that became the embodiment of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and governed through co-opting opposition forces and repression, under the facade of a democracy. Edmonds-Poli and Shirk describe how economic crisis and government corruption cost the PRI public support, leading it to allow free elections and victory for the opposition National Action Party in 2000. When the PRI regained power in 2012, it signed the Pact for Mexico with the other two major parties in a spirit of cooperation. The authors, nonetheless, cite a 2014 study revealing that only one in five Mexicans was satisfied with the political and economic situation. Continued corruption and violence—greatly related to drug trafficking—and a huge gap between rich and poor tarnish the democratic system. However, the authors express some admiration, saying that ‘Mexico's ability to move, in one generation, from a single-party-dominant system to one with vibrant competition is remarkable.’ Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections. (CHOICE)

Now in its second decade of a complex transition to democracy, Mexico confronts significant challenges to achieve economic growth with equity, along with rule of law. With a well-considered selection of topics, this current, concise, clearly written introduction to the government and politics of Mexico serves as both a comparative politics text as well as a reference guide for the interested public.
(John Bailey, emeritus professor of government, Georgetown University)

Contemporary Mexican Politics is the ideal book for introducing undergraduate and graduate students to Mexico—I use it in all my classes—and it's one of only two books I always recommend to any English peaker who wants to have a comprehensive understanding of how Mexico works today with a sense of the history that has shaped today's realities. (Andrew Selee, Mexico Institute, Woodrow Wilson Center)

Now in a thoroughly updated edition, this comprehensive and engaging text explores contemporary Mexico’s political development and examines the most important policy issues facing Mexico in the twenty-first century. The text to this revised edition is richly supplemented by new figures and tables that illustrate broad political, social, and economic trends and by boxes that provide in-depth treatment of a variety of subjects and concepts. Readers will find this widely praised book continues to be the most current and accessible work available on Mexico's politics and policy.