Chappell H. Lawson

Television News, Mexico's 2000 Elections and Media Effects in Emerging Democracies

On the basis of an analysis of a four-wave panel survey, we argue that exposure to television news had significant, substantial effects on both attitudes and vote choices in Mexicos watershed presidential election of 2000. These findings support the contention, implicit in some research on political communication, that the magnitude of media effects varies with certain features of the political context. In particular, television influence in electoral campaigns may be substantially larger in emerging democratic systems.

An Electorate Adrift?: Public Opinion and the Quality of Democracy in Mexico

When citizens lack stable political attitudes, leaders cannot easily be held accountable for their record in office, party system consolidation becomes more difficult, and public opinion is unable to offer much substantive guidance about policy-making. Ultimately, democratic governance is likely to suffer. In this article, we analyze a recent four-wave panel survey to assess the stability of political attitudes in Mexico. We find that the degree of attitude stability in Mexico varies across different types of dispositions. Although citizens hold reasonably firm views about the countrys main political actors, preferences over issues are less consistent. These findings suggest both possibilities and constraints for democratic governance.

How Did We Get Here? Mexican Democracy after the 2006 Elections

On July 2, 2006, Mexican voters elected National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderon as the next president of Mexico. Calderons victory was extremely narrow; he won under 36% of the total vote and less that 0.6% more than his leftist rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. This potentially problematic situation was aggravated by Lopez Obradors decision to challenge Calderons victory, both in the courts and in the streets. Lopez Obradors protest campaign culminated on September 16, when tens of thousands of his followers gathered in downtown Mexico City to acclaim him “legitimate president” of Mexico. Meanwhile, in the legislature, leaders of Lopez Obradors Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) oscillated between hints that they would collaborate with Calderons administration and signs that they would adopt a posture of untrammeled hostility.

Fox's Mexico at Midterm

With its third national election since the watershed political reforms of 1996, Mexico has successfully consolidated a democratic regime. As the first half of Vicente Foxs administration has demonstrated, however, certain features of this system seriously impede effective governance. Chief among these features is the combination of presidential rule with a three-party system. Most of the institutional reforms currently under consideration, such as the reelection of federal deputies, are unlikely to solve the problems this system generates. In this challenging institutional context, more is demanded of Mexican political leaders than they have so far been able to deliver.

Mexico's Neoliberal Democracy and Its Critics

Babb, Sarah. Managing Mexico: Economists from Nationalism to Neoliberalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. Tables, figures, notes, bibliography, index, 295 pp.; hardcover

Confronting Development: Assessing Mexico's Economic and Social Policy Challenges (review)

37.50, paperback

The Barriers to Media Opening in Latin America

19.95. Camp, Roderic Ai. Mexicos Mandarins: Crafting a Power Elite for the Twenty-First Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Tables, notes, bibliographic essay, index, 319 pp.; hardcover

Effects of Interviewer Gender on Survey Responses: Findings from a Household Survey in Mexico

54.95, paperback

Propaganda and Crony Capitalism: Partisan Bias in Mexican Television News

21.95. Gutmann, Matthew C. The Romance of Democracy: Compliant Defiance in Contemporary Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, 318 pp.; hardcover

Consolidating Mexico's democracy : the 2006 presidential campaign in comparative perspective

49.95, paperback