The overall purpose of this book is to use an original, detailed set of collective biographies of influential national political leaders in Mexico—numbering 3,000 individuals from all braches of the federal government, as well as all state governors, from 1935 to 2008—to test numerous questions about how that leadership has changed, what influences brought about that change, and what extent the shift from a semi-authoritarian to a democratic electoral model alters the composition of national politicians. Using this unique data set, based on four decades of research, and on extensive interviews ... More

The overall purpose of this book is to use an original, detailed set of collective biographies of influential national political leaders in Mexico—numbering 3,000 individuals from all braches of the federal government, as well as all state governors, from 1935 to 2008—to test numerous questions about how that leadership has changed, what influences brought about that change, and what extent the shift from a semi-authoritarian to a democratic electoral model alters the composition of national politicians. Using this unique data set, based on four decades of research, and on extensive interviews and correspondence with politicians, many significant alterations are discovered. Among the most important findings, the book concludes that democratic change produces alterations in leadership that are as dramatic or more so than those produced by violent change; that women have played an especially influential role in the democratic transition, especially through the legislative branch; that informal variables, such as kinship ties to important political families, are unaffected by significant changes in a political model; that certain institutional patterns are difficult to restore or hard to change; that specific reforms in the 1960s produced long-term unexpected patterns which continue to influence the composition of leadership to this day; that democracy has revived the importance of local political experience; that partisanship has increased with democratic politics; that the Miguel Alemán generation from the 1900s produced long-term institutional characteristics of Mexican politics; and that governors have emerged as potentially the most important national politicians of the future.