This book has focused on the study of the logic of a particular form of autocracy and its demise. The Mexican PRI held multiparty elections with clockwork precision for all elective offices, including the presidency. Yet an authoritarian government hid behind the façade of these elections. As argued by Schedler (2002), “electoral autocracies” such as the PRI constitute one of the most common forms of autocracies in the world today.

Elections under Autocracy

The Mexican PRI was designed with the explicit intent to prevent personal dictatorship. Since its creation in 1929, the PRI used regular elections as a means to share the spoils of office among ruling party politicians and to prevent any single individual from grabbing it all. For that purpose reelection for all elective offices, including the presidency, was ruled out. I hope to have shown that one of the pillars propping up the PRI regime was its massive electoral support. Even when elections were not competitive and the opposition could not dream of winning, the PRI engaged in the mobilization of voters. During the golden years of the PRI, elections were primarily a display of might – billboards, roads, and towns were painted in the party's colors (the same as those of the Mexican flag), and party rallies were packed with voters who were performing their duties, as if somebody was watching them.