Mexico's Pivotal Democratic Election: Candidates, Voters, and the Presidential Campaign of 2000 / Edition 1

by Jorge I. Dominguez, Chappell H. Lawson

Overview

The 2000 Mexican presidential race culminated in the election of opposition candidate Vicente Fox and the end of seven decades of one-party rule. This book, which traces changes in public opinion and voter preferences over the course of the race, represents the most comprehensive treatment of campaigning and voting behavior in an emerging democracy. It challenges the “modest effects” paradigm of national election campaigns that has dominated scholarly research in the field.

Chapters cover authoritarian mobilization of voters, turnout patterns, electoral cleavages, party strategies, television news coverage, candidate debates, negative campaigning, strategic voting, issue-based voting, and the role of the 2000 election in Mexico's political transition. Theoretically-oriented introductory and concluding chapters situate Mexico's 2000 election in the larger context of Mexican politics and of cross-national research on campaigns. Collectively, these contributions provide crucial insights into Mexico's new politics, with important implications for elections in other countries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804749749
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	10/23/2003
Edition description:	1
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jorge I. Domínguez is the Director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Chappell H. Lawson is Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Preface	xv
	List of Acronyms	xix
	Glossary of Mexican Words and Phrases	xxi
	Contributors	xxiii
1	Introduction	1
Part I.	The Electoral Context
2	Citizen Attitudes toward Democracy and Vicente Fox's Victory in 2000	25
3	Mobilized Voting in the 2000 Elections: The Changing Efficacy of Vote Buying and Coercion in Mexican Electoral Politics	47
4	Political Reform, Electoral Participation, and the Campaign of 2000	67
Part II.	Parties and Candidates
5	The Structure of the Mexican Electorate: Social, Attitudinal, and Partisan Bases of Vicente Fox's Victory	91
6	The Making of the Mexican President, 2000: Parties, Candidates, and Campaign Strategy	123
7	Primary Priming	157
Part III.	Campaign Messages and Voter Responses
8	Television Coverage, Vote Choice, and the 2000 Campaign	187
9	Mexico's Great Debates: The Televised Candidate Encounters of 2000 and Their Electoral Consequences	211
10	The Effects of Negative Campaigns on Mexican Voters	243
11	Strategic Coordination in the 2000 Mexican Presidential Race	269
12	The Issues, the Vote, and the Mandate for Change	293
13	Conclusion: Why and How Did Mexico's 2000 Presidential Election Campaign Matter?	321
Appendix	Mexico 2000 Panel Study	345
	Index	351

Recipe

The 2000 Mexican presidential race culminated in the election of opposition candidate Vicente Fox and the end of seven decades of one-party rule. This book, which traces changes in public opinion and voter preferences over the course of the race, represents the most comprehensive treatment of campaigning and voting behavior in an emerging democracy. It challenges the “modest effects” paradigm of national election campaigns that has dominated scholarly research in the field.
Chapters cover authoritarian mobilization of voters, turnout patterns, electoral cleavages, party strategies, television news coverage, candidate debates, negative campaigning, strategic voting, issue-based voting, and the role of the 2000 election in Mexico's political transition. Theoretically-oriented introductory and concluding chapters situate Mexico's 2000 election in the larger context of Mexican politics and of cross-national research on campaigns. Collectively, these contributions provide crucial insights into Mexico's new politics, with important implications for elections in other countries.

Editorial Reviews

"Dominguez and Lawson's book fills an important gap in the systematic, analytical, empirical, and theoretical study of Mexican electoral politics."—Latin American Politics and Society

From the Publisher

"Dominguez and Lawson's book fills an important gap in the systematic, analytical, empirical, and theoretical study of Mexican electoral politics."

Latin American Politics and Society