From power concentration in the founding emerging groups. Internal democracy of the National Action Party in México (1939-2012)

Abstract

The National Action Party reached more than seventy years of existence. In spite of this, little has been said about this organization internal democracy. In a general way the idea that prevails is that of being of an elitist nature. However, few efforts have been undertaken to examine the long evolution life of the party. This paper characterizes the party´s internal democracy highlighting the participation, competence and representative dimensions. The article concludes arguing that the change the party undertook from a situation where the national elite detained the political power (1939-1990) to one where it fragmented into several actors (state power, governmental and party´s functions) (1990-1992), as result of the electoral victories and the resulting obtention of governmental functions (in the ninetes).