The legal framework set forth by the Political Constitution of the Mexican United States is, at the same time, starting and ending point of the Mexican Political System. On one hand it evidences the advance regarding the political organization achieved by the society, and on the other hand it is a necessary reference to promote and achieve new cycles of political development.

The Federal District does not escape this dynamic. On the contrary, it is the social space that in its interior develops a complex local political system derived from the nature it is granted by the Constitution. In order to achieve the unraveling of the features of the entity, following are presented the aspects of highest relevance in the formation of the Federal District for more than one century; its importance within the national context is specially considered, specifically, on the issues regarding the electoral matters and its incidence on the evolution of the national political system.

The Federal District, its beginning 1824-1901

In 1824 the Constituents determined that the prevailing political system in Mexico had to be the Federalism Consequently, it was necessary to locate a physical place to settle the Powers of the Federation. This had to have the characteristic of the coexistence of the Executive and Legislative Powers through a local party.

In such time, the Valley of Mexico was elected as the place where the federal powers were to be installed. A Federal District was formed by means of an imaginary circle of two leagues of diameter and had as the center of the circumference the plaza of the city, known as the “zócalo” of the capital.

When settling the federal powers at the Valley of Mexico a contradictory scenario was presented in the exercise of the citizen rights. On one hand, the Constitution failed to establish the figure of City Hall or the authorities to elect a Head of Government, and on the other hand, elections for City Hall were carried out as it is evidenced at the minutes of the council of such time. Notwithstanding, during this time the internal organization of the Federal District was submitted to the resolutions of the Federal Congress.

Such situation was sustained for 33 years. It is until 1857 that the political status of the inhabitants of the Federal District was modified with the amendments of the Constitution. At the Reform Law enacted between 1855 and 1857 advances to the national development were contributed, among which, the separation of Church and State and the declaration of equality of all citizens before the law are found.

With the adjustments implemented to the legal framework of the country in the middle XX century it was achieved that the citizens of the Capital of Mexico obtained a right to vote and elect the authorities that integrated the City Hall, the governments and the deputies before the Federal Congress. This advance placed the Federal District, for the first time in history, in similar legal conditions to the rest of the inhabitants of the rest of the country. This situation was kept until the beginning of the XX century.

Economical and demographic consolidation of the Federal District 1900-1970

In 1901 the President of the Republic Porfirio Díaz ordered constitutional changes that affected the internal organization of the Federal District by disappearing the Boroughs from the entity. In spite of the fact that the Constituents of Querétaro in 1917 reestablished the Borough at the Constitution, this was temporary, more than ten years later the election of local authorities was suppressed in the Capital of Mexico.

The need to control the central zone of the country to project the directions regarding politics, economy, and social development to the rest of the national territory forced the several segments that acted during the Revolution of 1910 to fight permanently for its control. Between 1917 and 1928 Nationalists, Cooperationists and Laboralists assumed the control of the capital for at least one time each.

After permanent disputes among the different segments that participated at the Mexican Revolution, the President Álvaro Obregón managed the control of the Federal District. On December of 1928 he amended the article 73, section VI of the Political Constitution of the Mexican United States and this provoked the establishment of new basis for the political and administrative organization of the local scope, insofar it suppressed the municipal system entrusting the appointment of the Government of the entity to the President of the Republic.

Since the end of the second decade of the XX century, the Federal District was created as the seat of the Central Department and the Department of the Federal District was erected, whose highest authority, the Regent of the City was appointed by the Head of the Executive Power. Until 1947 the Federal District was divided into One Central Department and Thirteen Boroughs; the Central Department was formed by those who were the Boroughs of Mexico, Tacuba, Tacubaya and Mixcoac. Meanwhile the Boroughs were known as: Guadalupe Hidalgo, Azcapotzalco, Ixtacalco, General Anaya, Coyoacán, San Ángel, La Magdalena Contreras, Cuajimalpa, Tlalpan, Iztapalapa, Xochimilco, Milpa Alta and Tláhuac.

During this period the citizens exercised an electoral right partially effective, for instance, they participated at the elections of the members of the Federal Congress, this means federal deputies and senators of the Republic, as well as for the election of the Head of the Executive Power. The election was carried out in 9 electoral districts, all of them created from the volume and distribution of the population and whose rank varied from 60 thousand to 100 thousand inhabitants inside each electoral district.

On the other hand, to compensate for the loss of local representation the Consultant Council of the Central Department was created and one Council for each of the 13 localities.

For the elections of 1932, the amount and limits of the districts was modified as a consequence of the administrative adjustments and the demographic dynamics of the Federal District: the number of electoral places was increased to 12 districts.

At the end of 1941 the political status of the Federal District suffered new adjustments. By means of the reform to the Organic Law of the Federal District, the name was changed to Mexico City and the number of Boroughs was adjusted; in such time there were 12 localities. Notwithstanding, the constitutional provisions regarding the existence of local authorities arising from the decisions of the Executive Power were kept, and consequently the citizens continued prevented from the right to elect their local authorities.

In 1952 the amount and physical boundaries of the districts into which the Federal District was divided were adjusted. As a result of the impact of the demographical dynamics and the re-accommodation of the population, one more district was added, thus reaching the figure of 19 districts. At the mid sixties the number of districts that corresponded to the entity was adjusted again, under this new scenario it was increased to 24 districts, the majority of the new districts were located at the north and western part where an important belt of new colonies of immigrant population looking for opportunities of social and economical development was founded.

Since the beginning of the XX century, the DF was characterized as a place of high economic attraction and strong demographic impact. In 1900 it represented 4% of the total population of the country and seventy years later it practically quadrupled its relative weight insofar it reached 14% of the total. In the year 1950, 3 million of the 25 million 791 inhabitants of the country were officially registered as inhabitants of the Federal District. The boom continued for the two following decades and in the year 1970 the population of the entity represented a volume of 6 million 874 thousand inhabitants, this means 14 out of every one hundred inhabitants of the country resided at the capital.

The demographic weight that the Federal District possesses registers a similar relationship as regards the elections. Between 1929 and 1970, eight presidential elections were carried out and at least 16 intermediate elections. In the year of world economical crisis of 1929, the DF contributed a little more than 120 thousand votes of the 2 million 82 thousand 106 votes issued at a national level, in the year 1952, it contributed almost half a million of the 3 million 651 thousand votes issued, in only 20 years the entity tripled its voters volume and its relative participation went from 6% in 1929 to 12% in 1970.

For the presidential election of 1970, the Federal District confirmed its importance in the national political system by contributing 2 million 264 thousand 160 votes of the little more of 13 million issued. In relative terms, almost 2 out of 10 votes were contributed by the citizens of the capital. (see following graphic).

The urbanization process and the advances regarding civic education and citizen participation that have been originating at the entity generated results different from the rest of the country. For instance, at the presidential elections of 1952, the opposing candidate obtained 49% of the total votes issued at the entity.Notwithstanding, at the capital the country always maintained the favorable tendency to the candidates presented by the PRI.

In spite of the rise and social dynamics that was observed at the Federal District, yet in the first years of the seventies, the rights of the citizens of the Federal District were kept at the bottom regarding electoral issues. In the facts the citizens of the capital still depended of the decisions of the Executive Power in order to know their local authorities, at the Department of the Federal District as well as in the localities in which the territory was divided.

Evolution of the Federal District between 1971 and 1988

After 30 years of no changes at the legal sphere of Mexico City, at the end of 1970 by virtue of reforms to the Organic Law of the Federal District, the amount of Boroughs that integrated the local field was modified. The Federal District was divided into 16 Boroughs. What was once Mexico City became Miguel Hidalgo, Benito Juárez, Cuauhtémoc and Venustiano Carranza, adding to the localities that existed at such time.

Since that time, the reunion of economical and social factors allowed to carry out adjustments to the legal framework related to the functioning of the political system. Among the most important modifications the reduction of the number of affiliates to the political parties from 75 thousand to 65 thousand stands out, as well as its access to free time of massive communication media.

By reforming the Organic Law of the Department of the Federal District in 1970, a neighborhood based structure was intended to be created, capable of participating actively at the decisions of the administrative localities by means of the Consultant Council of Mexico City. Under the new scheme the citizens will be entitled to information, opinion and proposal to the Head of Government of the capital regarding constructions and services to be developed at the Boroughs.

The deficiencies of this mechanism of citizen semi-representation were evident to everyone. For instance, the citizens were not identified with the participation mechanism insofar it was established from the government; the neighbors were only allowed to issue opinions and only in administrative matters, away from the main social, political and economical directions of the metropolis, among others.

In 1977 López Portillo promoted another political reform, better known as the “Declaration of Chilpancingo” whose main idea consisted of broadening the citizen representation in order for the majority and the minority to be listened to.

A year later, on December 29, 1978 new reforms to the Organic Law of the Department of the Federal District containing the change of authorities of the Heads of Boroughs and to promote a higher citizen participation two new models were created: the resident associations and the block committees. With the adjustments of article 73 of the Constitution two models were introduced the “Referendum” and the “popular bills” to pass or initiate laws or regulations regarding the DF. Unfortunately, the regulations for its application were never issued and in the political amendment of 1986-1987 they disappeared from the Constitution.

This democratic opening process had its starting point at the need of the party of State to obtain credibility of the citizens over the correct functioning of the institutions and of the national political system.

A fundamental factor of the evolution of the national politics and therefore of the capital of the country is the economical factor; after two decades of stability and national economical development, the external factor, this means the Mexican trade balance, started to evidence a high deficit created by the demand of goods of foreign capital and the diminishing of exports of raw materials. The internal market came into a phase of inflation that was controlled in a temporary manner by issuing a higher level of monetary resources supported by the discovery of oil and its export.

At the level of national politics the government needed to grant credibility and transparency to the roll of the State. In the economical aspect, the government needed the stability and to maintain the social development.

The political and economical factors were reflected at the evolution of the elections. Between 1970 and 1988 the volume of voters went from 13 million 800 thousand approximately, to a few over 19 million; a side increase if it is compared to the increases at the previous elections. In the case of the Federal District the increase was of 640 thousand votes in 18 years (1970 to 1988).

In the case of the elections for federal deputies of 1979, 1982 and 1985, the tendency to vote in favor of the opposition was evident in a remarkable manner. The dominant party reached preferences that oscillated between 46% and 49% of the total. The citizens of the capital represented two characteristics that made it different towards other states:

Showed tiredness that its rights were limited to elect the representatives of federal character and to indirectly elect the members of the sole mechanisms of local representation that existed until that date, which were named the block committees; and,

Being the seat of the Federal Powers it represented the place of highest economical, demographic and educational development movement in the country, reason for which political associations that demanded the modification of the political status of the capital raised permanently.

The Federal District and the new challenges of the participative democracy 1987-2009

The pressure of the social organizations gave place to the Legislative Assembly in 1988, which was integrated by 40 representatives elected by the principle of plurality system and 26 elected by the principle of proportional representation.

With the political reform from 1996 Legislative Assembly transformed into the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF) entitled to issue laws and decrees on the main aspects of the political, economical, demographic and social life of the inhabitants of the Federal District. In that same year the law was amended in order for the citizens to elect for the first time, in 1997 the Head of Government of the Federal District, and in 2000, the 16 heads of the localities into which the capital of the Country was divided.

Since that time the local and federal authorities are elected at the Federal District.

Between 1988 and 2009 four elections for the Head of the Federal Executive Power have taken place, and in such period, 3 elections for the Head of Government and four Heads of Boroughs have been carried out. At the presidential elections the volume of voters registered at the DF of the total votes is significant; for instance, in 1994 of the approximate figure of 35 million votes, 12% of those votes were issued at the Federal District.

In 2006, more than 42 million of citizens voted; the Federal District increased its contribution to the national total in 4.7 million, figure that is equal to a variation of barely 800 thousand more votes compared to the votes of 1994.

After the restitution to the citizens of the Federal District of their electoral rights in 1997 (eliminated for more than 50 years) and of the change of the federal government in 2000, the national political system has new challenges, among which the following are stressed out: adjustment of the times of electoral pre-campaigns and campaigns, the use of communication media, the surveillance of the resources received by the political parties and to establish the mechanisms that provide the citizens of more tools to evaluate, and if the case might be, punish or award the actions of their representatives.