Abstract (may include machine translation)
In contemporary Mexico, political elections have turned into fundamentally free, fair, competitive, and clean contests. Yet, in political debate, the idea prevails that the country's transition to democracy is still on its way. How can we explain this apparent divergence? First, as the article argues, empirical disagreements over the state of democratization persist due to the veiled nature of the Mexican transition. Second, normative disagreements over the endpoints of democratization have raised the standards a complete transition must fulfill. Third, the idea of an ongoing transition has turned into political common sense. It has become part of 'ordinary' language. Accordingly, political actors may use it in many different ways but still harbour an illusion of shared meaning and common ground.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 325-345 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Mexican Studies - Estudios Mexicanos |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2000 |
Externally published | Yes |