Are the Political Parties Converging in Mexico? The Role of the State and Model of Development in the Basic Documents of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Partido Acción Nacional and Partido de la Revolución Democrática (1929-2009)

Abstract

In this essay the author analyzes the postures of the principle political parties of Mexico (Revolutionary Institutional Party, National Action Party and The Party of the Democratic revolution) in two key themes of the economic politics; the role of the state in the economy and the proposed model of development. It takes as its base the analysis of basic documents (Declaration of Principles and Programs of action) and in a lesser degree, the electoral platforms of thesaid parties. The study identifies not one, but three patterns of convergence: the first between PRI and PAN during he decades of 1960 and1970; he second one occurs during the decades of 1980 and 1990 and concerns, in a first example, PRI and PAN, and from1990, the PRD; the third is given between the three parties during the last decade.