Stabilization and the revolution institutionalized

In 1929 the National Mexican Party, PNM, was formed by the serving president, General Plutarco Elias Calles. (It would later became the PRI or Partido Revolucionario Institucional that ruled the country for the rest of the 20th century.) The PNM succeeded at convincing most of the remaining revolutionary generals to dissolve their personal armies to create the Mexican Army, and so its foundation is considered by some the real end of the Mexican Revolution.

President Lazaro Cardenas del Rio came to power in 1934 and transformed Mexico: on April 1, 1936 he exiled Calles, the last general with dictatorial ambitions, managed to unite the different forces in the PRI and set the rules that allowed this party to rule unchallenged for decades to come without internal fights. He nationalized the oil industry on March 18, 1938, the electricity industry, created the National Polytechnic Institute, granted asylum to Spanish expatriates fleeing the Spanish Civil War, started land reform, started the distribution of free textbooks for children, and, in general, pursued policies that for good or ill have marked the development of Mexico until the present day.

Manuel Avila Camacho, Cardenas's successor, presided over a "bridge" between the revolutionary era and the era of machine politics under PRI that would last until 2000. Camacho, moving away from nationalistic autarchy, proposed to create a favorable climate for international investment, favored nearly two generations ago by Madero. Camacho's regime froze wages, repressed strikes, and persecuted dissidents with a law prohibiting the "crime of social dissolution." During this period, the PRI regime thus betrayed the legacy of land reform. Miguel Aleman Valdes, Camacho's successor, even had Article 27 amended to protect elite landowners.

Although PRI regimes achieved economic growth and relative prosperity for almost three decades after World War II, the management of the economy collapsed several times, and political unrest grew in the late sixties, culminating in the Tlatelolco massacre in 1968. In the 1970s, economic crises affected the country in 1976 and 1982, after which the banks were nationalized, having been blamed for the economic problems. On both occasions the Mexican peso was devalued, and until 2000, it had been normal to expect a big devaluation and a recessionary period after each presidential term ended every six years. The crisis that came after a devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over half a century.

On September 19, 1985, an earthquake measuring approximately 8.0 on the Richter scale struck Michoacan and inflicted severe damage on Mexico City. Estimates of the number of dead range from 6,500 to 30,000.

The PRI

The PRI was the political party of Mexico that set up a new type of system, led by a caudillo. In 1934, Cardenas removed the army from power. The PRI is typically referred to as the three-legged stool, in reference to Mexican workers, peasants and bureaucrats.

The end of PRI's hegemony

In 1995 President Ernesto Zedillo faced an economic crisis. There were public demonstrations in Mexico City and constant military presence after the 1994 rising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Chiapas. Zedillo also oversaw political and electoral reforms that reduced the PRI's hold on power. After the 1988 election, which was strongly disputed and arguably lost by the government party, the IFE (Instituto Federal Electoral – Federal Electoral Institute) was created in the early 1990s. It is run by ordinary citizens, overseeing that elections are conducted legally and fairly. As a result of popular discontent, the presidential candidate of the National Action Party, (PAN) Vicente Fox Quesada won the federal election of July 2, 2000, but did not win a majority in the chambers of congress. The results of this election ended 71 years of PRI hegemony in the presidency.

Many in Mexico claim that, even if Fox won the election, President Zedillo did not give his party (PRI) a chance to dispute the results of the election by making Fox's victory "official" by addressing the nation the same night of the election, a first in Mexican politics (and in other places, too, where it is more normal for the losing candidate to admit defeat, rather than the outgoing incumbent). One reason offered for this is that Zedillo sought a quick and peaceful election in 2000 to avoid another crisis after the change of government.

Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states, even though the Mexican government has made efforts to improve these problems especially in the area of inflation. The country has continued to struggle with such issues as economic control and development, especially with the petroleum sector and the evolution of trade relations with the United States. Corruption and violence stemming from the drug trade have also brought problems to Mexico lately.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org