Common sense without common ground: The concept of democratic transition in Mexican politics

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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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)325-345
Number of pages21
JournalMexican Studies - Estudios Mexicanos
Volume16
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2000
Externally publishedYes

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