Mexico: Reducing the Political Reach of the Peso

Posted: 2007-12-04

Helgesen 2007 has been a year of many developments in democracy worldwide, not least in regions where International IDEA has a strong presence. Latin America, a region which is about to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Third Wave of democratization that spread like wildfire through the region in the late seventies, celebrated a tidal wave of elections over the past year. The great majority of these elections passed without a hitch. In Mexico though, the elections were seriously contested and the country experienced a very tumultuous post-electoral period. However, despite the polarised positions of the government and the opposition, there has been a marked commitment by leaders in that country to push through much needed reforms to the electoral system as part of a wider package of state reforms. International IDEA’s Latin America Office has been providing significant support to this reform process.

The electoral reforms are designed to guarantee that elections become more equitable, less expensive, and less frequent. They also seek to introduce checks and balances of electoral authorities, candidates, and political parties with the introduction of transparency and accountability mechanisms. The reforms will reduce the period of electoral campaigning and ensure more effective management within the two major electoral bodies.

Curbs have been introduced on the funding of political parties and how money is spent. In this connection direct state funding of political parties state is to be reduced marking a notable shift away from the vast amount of funding that was dedicated to the system in the past. Hitherto one of the most significant complaints about the Mexican political system has revolved around the commercial relationship between parties and media outlets. As a means to further stem the political reach of the peso, greater control has been designed in these reforms to overcome this particular problem which became particularly contentious in the 2006 presidential elections. Political parties will no longer be able to directly purchase advertising from the mass media; instead the electoral authority will assign television and radio spots on an equitable basis between the parties. Pre-campaign activity will also be better regulated and campaign expenses will be subjected to scrutiny and control by the electoral authorities.

The recognition by the Mexican government, political parties, academics and other actors in Mexico of the need to reform the electoral system in order to prevent further polarization was exemplary, not only in terms of learning from existing flaws but in also in terms of demonstrating a clear will to prevent further conflict. It was also a learning experience for International IDEA in the sense that long-term and non-prescriptive commitment and support to democracy building processes can eventually win through.

Implementation of the reforms embarked on by Mexico will be both a challenging and interesting process especially at a time when political funding is receiving more and more attention on the democracy and development agenda. We all agree that democracy is an expensive endeavor but a significant show of thriftiness would likely lead to more respect of political parties and the political system in general, particularly in those countries where large segments of the population live below any acceptable threshold. It will be interesting to see if some of the funding freed up from electoral campaigning in countries where party funding is being regulated in a similar fashion could be used by government and parties to meet the demands of the electorate in the delivery of much needed basic services.

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