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Political Party and Candidate Development
In September 2004, the International Republican Institute (IRI) began work to encourage greater transparency and accountability in the government by assisting Mexican political parties with internal party democratization initiatives.
IRI began by reaching out to Mexico's three major political parties-the National Action Party (PAN), the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Today IRI helps the parties by conducting workshops that focus on political communications, media strategies, constituent outreach, internal communications between national, state and local party structures and promoting voter participation.
In particular, IRI's district office and constituent outreach initiative is being conducted nationwide with local and national members of the Mexican congress. At the end of the last Congressional term, IRI conducted an evaluation of the district office program, and asked citizens to share their thoughts about Congress. The evaluation showed that citizens who visited their representative’s district office were better informed and more optimistic about the role Congress could play in addressing Mexico’s problems. IRI is now working with Congress to incorporate their constituents’ recommendations and strengthen outreach and decentralization programs.
IRI has also sought out partnerships with parties at the state level. In the State of Mexico, the PRI party has attracted national attention for its bid to modernize state government. IRI provides technical assistance to help the party increase accountability, transparency and decentralization within the Governor’s Office and in the State Congress.
Exchange visits between the United States and Mexico provide opportunities for analyzing the U.S. political system and its potential applicability to Mexico's democracy. The discussions and conclusions resulting from these visits directly improve the quality of the workshops and generate ideas and networks for future program activities. As an additional benefit of these visits, U.S. and Mexican politicians and government officials are able to converse directly, and thus gain a broader understanding of their respective political systems.
Women's Participation in Local Politics
Beginning with the 2000 election, women's participation in national Mexican politics is increasing. Women won 23 percent of the legislative seats in the elections of 2003, up seven percent from 2000. Mexico's world ranking of number of women in legislative office rose from 55th to 29th. These improvements owe at least partly to the electoral reform law of 2002, which requires at least 30 percent of each political party's candidates to be women.
Unfortunately, women's participation at the local and state levels has lagged behind the national trend. IRI believes that developing women leaders at the local and state levels will ultimately produce better female candidates for national office. To this end, IRI is working with political parties to encourage women's participation at the local level, training women's candidates at the state and local levels and partnering with civil society organizations who work at the state and local levels.
IRI launched its Mexico woman’s participation initiative in November 2006, with trainings in Toluca, Cuernavaca and Puebla. The trainings attracted more than 500 civically active women, and helped them identify ways to increase the participation of women in their local communities. IRI will continue to focus its trainings on impoverished areas of southern Mexico, where development has lagged behind the industrialized north.
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Ruled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for more than 70 years, Mexico took a dramatic leap in 1997 holding its first truly competitive elections in the country’s history. This was followed by the PRI’s first presidential primary in 1999. These events set the stage for Mexico’s first competitive presidential election in July 2000, which Vicente Fox of the PAN won in a dramatic victory, ending the PRI monopoly of power.
