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AbstractThis article seeks to determine the main predictors of political participation in a newly democratic regime: Mexico. Compared to other nations, Mexico fills a moderate position in terms of the volume of political participation. Following the literature on participation, this study develops a set of participant modes—voting, communal activity, petitioning, direct action, and political organization membership—and then seeks to determine the socioeconomic, demographic, attitudinal, and social capital factors that best explain participation. Distinct resource inequalities limit the participation of the less educated, the poor, women, and workers, although peasant participation is robust. The strongest determinant of political participation of all kinds is involvement in social capital–generating activities: belonging to nonpolitical organizations and engaging in charitable work, activities typically dominated by the middle class. Building social capital is essential to promoting robust rates of political participation in Mexico.

Reports on the July 2006 presidential & congressional elections in Mexico in which Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) narrowly defeated Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Coalition for the Good of All. Obrador's challenge of the results spawned massive public protests. The congressional elections left the PAN without majorities in either the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies, leaving Calderon with a divided government. An overview of the historical context in which the election occurred is followed by a description of Mexico's electoral system, & characteristics of the campaigns of Calderon & Obrador which set the tone for the campaigns of congressional candidates. The 58.6 percent turnout represents a continuing decline in voters. The new congress ended up evenly divided among the National Action Party, the Coalition for the Good of All, & the Alliance for Mexico. The conflict over the legitimacy of the results that lasted over five months after the election is detailed. Tables, References. J. Lindroth

Competition came to Mexico's new democracy with unexpected fury
in the nation's 2006 presidential election. Until recently Mexico was
the bastion of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), where
opposition parties could rarely hope to gain half as many votes as the
PRI. But in the July 2 presidential election, Felipe Calderón of
the National Action Party (PAN) edged Ándres Manuel López
Obrador of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) by a mere 233,831
votes, or 0.58% of the more than 41.5 million cast. The PRI's
candidate, Roberto Madrazo, finished a distant third. Calderón took
this razor-thin margin after a fiercely competitive campaign marked by
lavish media spending and the use of negative attack ads. López
Obrador has contested the outcome from the time the polls closed until the
present, calling his supporters into the streets on several occasions to
put pressure on the electoral authorities to recount the votes; staging an
"election by acclamation" in which those present at a rally on
Mexico's Independence Day "elected" López Obrador
by a show of hands; and holding an "inauguration" ceremony on
November 20, the anniversary of the onset of the Mexican Revolution. While
López Obrador challenged the preliminary outcome, Calderón
had to wait patiently until the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE)
declared him elected on September 5, fully two months after the ballots
had been cast.