When in political science there is talk about political system, on a general basis there are references to the set of institutions, groups and procedures that are related among themselves in this field, as well as to the controversies that can arise among them, the manner in which they deal with the demands of the different social groups and the answering capacity of the involved instances are capable of expressing. It is accepted by the experts on this subject matter, that David Easton was one of the precursors of the approach of revising the political affairs with a systemic focus, but he was not the only one. There are other theorists that continued this focus: Almond, Powell, Parsons or Loewenstein, just to mention some of them, and their contributions created a wide debate whose analysis escapes the line of this work.

For such reason, in this section only the general features of the institutions of the Mexican Political system will be revised, whose existence and functions derive from the constitutional provisions.

The first thing that must be pointed out is that the CPEUM sets forth that Mexico is organized as a representative, democrat and federal Republic, formed by 31 free and sovereign states, joined in a federation pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution, and a Federal District, which is at the same time, seat of the Powers of the Union and capital of the Mexican United States.

Once the organization adopted by the country is defined, the Constitution also sets forth that the people exercise its sovereignty through the Supreme Power of the Federation which, for the purposes of being exercised is divided into three powers: Legislative, Executive and Judicial, delimiting that two or more of such powers cannot be joint in one person or entity and that the legislative power cannot be deposited into one person, exception made for extraordinary cases.

Basic aspects of the integration of the powers

The Constitution sets forth specifically that the only manner for the renewal of the executive and legislative powers is by means of periodical, free and authentic elections.

Executive Power

On constitutional terms, the exercise of the Executive Power is deposited in one sole person who is named President of the Mexican United States, head of State, among whose authorities the integration and direction of the government through different ministries, the command over the armed forces of the country, the conduction of the foreign policy, the authority to appoint, among other officers, the Secretaries of State and the General District Attorney, and to authority to pass bills or decrees, are found.

The President holds office for six years, and is elected pursuant to the electoral law by a universal, free, direct and secret election and under any circumstance can be reelected.

Legislative Power

The cpeum sets forth that “The national sovereignty relies essentially and originally in the people. All public power arises from the people and is created for its benefit”. Likewise, the Constitution sets forth that the Legislative Power of the Mexican United States is deposited at a General Congress divided into: a Chamber of deputies and a senate, both elected by universal, free, direct and secret elections. It is important to mention that none of its members can be reelected for an immediate following period.

Chamber of deputies

The Chamber of deputies is formed by 500 representatives, 300 of them elected by the principle of plurality system in an equal number of districts, and 200 of them elected by the principle of proportional representation by means of region lists, voted in plurinominal constituencies. The deputies are completely renewed every three years, and for each proprietary member, an alternate is elected.

That as regards the seats of proportional representation, the Constitution sets forth that the political parties that reach at least 2% of the total votes will have the right to have deputies under this principle, and the amount of this deputies will be proportional to the votes that are accumulated, but under no circumstance any party could have more than 300 deputies under both principles, or obtain a representation that exceeds 8% of the received votes.

The distribution of single member districts in each entity is carried out in accordance to the results of the last general population census, but each state of the federation must have at least two deputies elected by the majority principle. Following, a schedule of designation of the 300 electoral single member districts in accordance to the XII General Population and Housing Census, is shown, designation that will remain in force and effect until the elections of 2009, insofar as the year 2010 the following census will be carried out thus the distribution of districts could be redefined.

Source: Created by the DEOyGE with information of the Federal Electoral Institute. http://www.ife.org.mx. Consultation of September 3, 2007.

Senate

The Senate is formed by 128 members elected as follows: in each state, including the Federal District, two Senators are elected by the principle of plurality system, thus there are 64 elected Senators elected by this principle. Additionally, a Senator is appointed for the first minority of each state, thus there are 32 Senators appointed by this method. 32 Senators are added to these 96 Senators, which are elected by the principle of proportional representation, by means of a list system voted at one national plurinominal constituency. This house is completely renewed every six years and for each proprietary member an alternate is elected.

The Congress has two periods of ordinary sessions. The first of them initiates on the 1st day of September of each year and could be elongated until December 15 of the same year, exception made for the case when the President of the Republic commences its functions. The second period covers from the 1st day of February until April 30. In these periods, the congress is involved in the study, discussion and voting of the bills that are presented and the resolution of the matters of its competence in accordance to the provisions of the Constitution. The resolutions of the Congress are either law or decrees and the passing of a bill which is not exclusive right of one of the Chambers must be discussed by both. It is important to mention that the communication between the Senate and the Chamber of deputies is carried out through their commissions.

To establish a general view of the Congress’ function, following, the seven parliament functions into which the researcher Susana Thalía Pedroza de la Llave classified the constitutional authorities of the legislative power.

The legislative function. Consisting in the Congress or both its Chambers create or produce legal provisions in the form of laws or decrees that are applicable to the subjects to whom they are addressed to. In this sense the author distinguishes two kinds of legislative processes. The first of them is named ordinary and it implies passing laws and decrees through seven stages: bill, discussion, approval, sanctioning, promulgate, publication and commencement of its force and effect. The second kind is destined to amend the Constitution and for such purpose it requires the approval of the Federal Congress by the qualified majority, plus the approval of the majority of the Local Congresses.

The financial or budgetary function. It refers to the fact that the Congress is entitled to impose the contributions that are necessary to achieve the common wellbeing. In this manner, among others, it sets forth the contributions to cover the budget, discusses and approves the budget of expenses of the federation, and legislates regarding the issues of public indebtedness of the Federal District.

The administrative function. It relates to the concrete, specific activities that are carried out in compliance of the law. In this title, among other functions, we can find the appointment of the magistrates of the land tenancy courts; the approval of the name of the head of the Central Bank; and the approval of the electoral councilors of the Federal Electoral Institute. The Senate, for instance, appoints the members of the Supreme Court of Justice and is entitled to remove the Head of Government of the Federal District.

The control function. Implies that, by means of several actions the Federal Congress examines the activities of the executive power and establishes a political control that impedes this power two become unlimited and sovereign. Thus, among other authorities, it is entitled to establish by means of the Income Law, the economical resources that the Executive Power can have, it can request the appearance of the Secretaries of State or the General District Attorney, it analyses the foreign policy or acts as accusation entity (Chamber of Deputies) and is sets itself as sentencing jury (Senate) at the political trials to public servants.

The orientation or political direction function. Referring to the participation of the Congress in the establishment of national politics objectives and selecting the instruments to achieve them. For instance, the Congress is entitled to pass laws on national planning, programming and promotion of Mexican investment or the regulation of foreign investment.

The jurisdictional function. The Congress can carry out acts that create particular, concrete and individual circumstances that solve a controversy, declare the existence of a duty or right or end with the resolution that is final. As a manner of example in this sense there is the authority to arrange the boundaries of the states, putting an end to the differences on the boundaries of the territories, provided that, this differences do not represent a controversy, the Senate is entitled to solve the political differences that arise among the powers of a state. The Chamber of deputies can accuse the President of the Republic for treason, or public order crimes, being the Senate the responsible of imposing the penalty.

Under the Mexican political system, it is important to mention that in the month of December 2009, the Head of the Federal Executive sent to Congress an initiative for political reform, which if is published, may impact, among other things the integration of the Congress.

Judicial Power

The exercise of the Judicial Power of the Federation is deposited in a collegiate entity named the Supreme Court of Justice, on an Electoral Court, on the Collegiate Courts and Unitary Circuit Courts and on the District Courts. Exception made for all that regards the Supreme Court of Justice, the administration and surveillance of the Judicial Power is under the authority of the Federal Judicial Council.

The Supreme Court of Justice is formed by 11 ministers that are elected by the Senate among a list of three candidates that is proposed by the President of the Republic. These ministers hold office for 15 years and cannot be reelected unless they hold office as an internship or alternate manner.

On the other hand, the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation is the highest authority in this subject. In order to exercise its authorities has a Superior Bench and 5 Regional Benches, composed of seven and three Electoral Judges, respectively. Its members are elected by the Senate from the proposal of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. The integration of the Regional Benches is described in the following table.

Source: Prepared by the DEOyGE based on information from The Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation. http://www.trife.org.mx/todo2.asp?menu=20. Consulted on April 22, 2010.

Its authorities include the declaration of validity of the presidential election and the resolution, in a final and uncontestable manner, of the objections to the federal elections and, provided that it is materially and legally possible, regarding the local elections, pursuant to the General Law of the System of Means of Objection regarding Elections.

The importance of the division of powers

The principle of division of powers established at a constitutional level in 1917 was strengthened throughout the XX century insofar the contribution of several factors among which the different electoral reforms that were published starting from the fifties can be stressed out. In this sense, we can mention the reform of 1952, year in which the Mexican female citizens obtained their right to vote, or the reform of 1962 that introduced the model named party deputies, which opened the first door in order for political forces to have representation inside the legislative power.

Although in our country the elections to renew the executive and legislative powers have been carried out in a timely fashion, several authors consider that during various decades of the twentieth century the Executive Power prevailed over the other powers. In this sense researcher Jean Meyer determines that:

“Inside the regimes…post revolutionary those belonging to the presidential system must be stressed out. The presidential system is defined as the dominance that the executive power achieves over the legislative power, when the latter, as regards its composition, contains a majority (relative or absolute) of deputies pertaining to the party that at such time is the official…”

From a legal point of view, the importance developed by the presidential figure and some of its manifestations were located in 1978 by the researcher Jorge Carpizo and it is convenient to point them out insofar they dimension the capability of influence that the President of the Republic had. According to Carpizo, these manifestations of the presidential system regarding the Executive Power are:

• It is the head of the predominant party, party which is integrated by the great workers, peasants and professional unions.

• The weakening of the legislative power, insofar the higher majority of the Legislators are members of the predominant party and know that it they confront the president the possibilities of success are almost none and that they are certainly jeopardizing their political careers.

• The integration, of a relevant part of the supreme court of justice by political elements that are not opposed to the issues in which the president is interested at.

• The evident influence in the economy by means of the mechanisms of the central bank, of the decentralized entities and of the governmental companies, as well as the broad authorities that it has regarding the economy.

• The institutionalization of the army, whose higher commands depend of the president.

• The strong influence on the public opinion by means of the controls and authorities it has regarding the massive communications media.

• The concentration of economical resources of the federation, especially at the executive power.

• The vast constitutional and outside the constitution authorities, as the authority to appoint its successor and the Head of Governments of the states. 

• The determination of all the international aspects in which the Country participates, with no break from the senate.

• The direct government of the most important region and of the Country by far, as it is of the federal district (sic).

• A psychological element: that in general terms the predominant role of the executive is accepted without further questioning.

This was possible, as José Woldenberg points out, insofar of the manner in which the post revolutionary system was constructed, which located the President on top of the power, as great creator of the electoral fusions, whose constitutional, legal and political authorities ruled the political life of the Country with a determinant influence over the judicial and legislative powers.

Notwithstanding, today, it is possible to speak of such phenomenon in past tense. Jorge Carpizo himself in his article entitled Veintidós años de presidencialismo mexicano: 1978-2000. Una recapitulación (Twenty two years of a Mexican presidential system: 1978-2000. A recapitulation) reviews each one of the causes that gave grounds to his proposal of presidential system and when comparing them to the political reality that prevails currently in the Country, he acknowledges that there have been changes that have strengthened the democratic system. Throughout this comparative analysis the researcher raises the fact that the predominant party system no longer exists and that there is no consideration that the president of the Republic can have a chief position at its party; there is a party based system, instead of a predominant party: there is a multiple party composition of the Federal Congress that carries out the authorities that the law confides to the Congress and the authorities of the Judicial Power have been strengthened.

This strengthen of the balance between the powers was based, among other things, on the electoral reforms, specially the one of 1996, that allowed to carry out the configuration of the governmental institutions throughout the Country from Electoral process organized at the shelter of a state of law, with the features that identify democracies:

• The political forces that contest at the Electoral process do it by means of political parties, instances that have been strengthened and compete under equal conditions and under the same procedures;

• The instances that organize and qualify the Electoral process are arbitrators of autonomous and independent character from the executive and legislative powers;

• The vote of each citizen is free, secret, direct and has the same weight (one citizen = one vote); and,

• The elected representatives at all levels reflect the co-relationship of the social forces present at the time of the elections.