Revista Mexicana de Estudios Electorales

De La Torre, Carlos (2025). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Jorge Gerardo Flores-Díaz — 2026-05-02

Book review of the book: De la Torre, Carlos (2025). Populism and Fascism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Spanish

Gabriel Corona Armenta — 2026-05-02

This research aims to analyze the implications of the three percent vote barrier on the local party system in Mexico. This will be done based on the electoral results obtained by local parties in the municipal, provincial, and gubernatorial elections. The study universe is the elections held in the 32 federal entities between 2015 and 2024.

The hypothesis is that, unlike at the federal level, where the legal barrier has not caused many parties to lose their registration, it has been significant at the subnational level. The increase in the legal barrier led to the disappearance of most local parties. Those who survived did so because they had the support of governors, formed alliances with larger parties, or supported external candidates. Despite this, very few had a strong electoral presence.

Can electoral victory be achieved without a party? The role of individual factors in the success of independent candidates at the local level (Mexico, 2021)

Azucena Carolina Serrano Rodríguez — 2026-05-02

Independent candidates have been incorporated into the Mexican electoral system as an alternative to political parties, yet their electoral performance at the local level remains limited and uneven. While some candidates achieve competitive results, most receive only marginal support. This article analyzes the individual factors that account for these differences base don a study of the 2021 municipal elections in Mexico. The objective is to assess whether campaign spending, previous political experience, and the candidate’s gener influence the vote share obtained by independent contenders. Using an original database of 200 non-party aspirants, the study employs statistical techniques such as descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation, linear regression, and Student’s t-tests. The results show that campaign spending has a positive but moderate effect, that political experience is the most relevant factor in explaining electoral performance, and that women fase significant disadvantages compared to men. Overall, the findings suggest that the success of independent candidates depends on the interaction among economic resources, political capital, and gender inequalities within an institutional environment that continues to favor traditional parties. The study concludes that, without reforms to reduce these barriers, independent candidates Will struggle to consolidate themselves as a competitive and equitable option in Mexican local politics.

FROM THE CITIZEN INITIATIVE IN THE STATES: BAJA CALIFORNIA, 2016-2024

Osías Gibrán Ruíz Durazo — 2026-05-02

The main goal of this case study is to evaluate the effect and the efficiency of citizen initiatives in the state of Baja California, Mexico, during the period 2016-2024. To do so, a qualitative methodology is presented, which analyzes citizen participation and shows initiatives introduced in the Legislative Branch of this state, as well as their current status. The purpose of the study is to understand how these have influenced political decision-making, local governance, and the quality of citizens' life. The results are expected to provide relevant information for political actors interested in promoting a solid and stake democracy in the zone.

Judicial argumentation as a tool for power: A structured analysis of TEPJF rulings and their effects on Mexico’s political system

Juan José Tena García — 2026-05-02

In contemporary democracies, electoral courts shape the rules of the political game through rulings that transcend purely technical-legal reasoning. This paper examines landmark decisions of Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF, for its Spanish acronym) from the 2018, 2021 and 2024 electoral cycles. Combining neo-constitutional theory with empirical techniques (frequency tables and the AHP-Saaty method), it shows that the litis, the evidentiary record, and the interpretive method are not sufficient to account for the ultimate direction of the judgments: the adjudicator’s subjective factors and discursive justification weigh as much as 35% in the decision. The paper concludes with a normative proposal to narrow judicial discretion without undermining legal certainty.

The main limitation of the study is the relatively small corpus (18 rulings) and the inevitable subjectivity in their choice, which calls for further research with larger samples and automated techniques.

Presentation

René Valdiviezo Sandoval — 2026-05-02