Matthew R. Cleary
Las reformas electorales y la intensa competencia entre partidos han constituido partefundamental de la transicin mexicana a la democracia. La distincin conceptual entrecompetencia y competitividad, y la creacin de un mtodo para estudiar y medir la justezade las reglas de la competencia y los cambios en la competitividad, permiten analizar,de manera sistemtica, el impacto de las leyes electorales ms justas en la competitividaden elecciones locales (municipales) y federales (distritos de mayora) en Mxico en el periodo1977-1997. Basado en un anlisis estadstico, la evidencia sugiere que entre las variablesinstitucionales y socioeconmicas exploradas, destaca la justeza de las leyes electoralescomo un factor crucial para explicar la variacin de la competitividad electoral.
Electoral reforms and the emergence of intense party competition have been two crucialparts of the Mexican transition to democracy. The conceptual distinction between competitionand competitiveness, and the creation of a method to study and measure fairerrules of competition and changes in electoral competitiveness, allow to analyse, in a systematicway, the impact of fairer electoral rules on competitiveness in local (municipal)and federal (majority districts) elections in Mexico in the 1977-97 period. Based on a statisticalanalysis, evidence suggests that, among the institutional and socio-economic variablesexplored, the degree of fairness of electoral laws constitutes a crucial factor inexplaining the variation of competitiveness.