Taking on Goliath: The Emergence of a New Left Party and the Struggle for Democracy in Mexico

by Kathleen Bruhn

Taking on Goliath analyzes the formation and decline of the most successful opposition party challenge to Mexico's long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which, until 1988, had ruled unchallenged for more than sixty years. The emergence of this new left opposition in 1988 shattered the myth of PRI invincibility. However, its failure to capitalize on its initial success raises intriguing questions about the relationship between party...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 027101587X
• ISBN13: 9780271015873
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good primer in opposition party politics in Mexico

This book outlines the changes that have taken place in Mexican politics since the 1988 presidential election there, focusing specifically on the development of the PRD from being a personalistic vehicle for Cuauhtemoc Cardenas to being a true political party of the left. Bruhn places this development in the context of the changes in the broader political environment which have been occurring in Mexico and which have facilitated the emergence of the PRD. Specifically, she addresses the challenges that the PRD has faced in attaining internal consolidation among the PRD's component parts and external institutionalization in the one-party dominant system. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Mexican party system.