| "[S]cholars
will long be indebted to Bruhn for the pioneering research published
in this impressive book."-Barry Carr, Latin American Studies
"[W]e are fortunate to have this excellent study which poses a
series of questions that illuminate not only Mexican politics, but
the long, difficult process of transition to more democratic institutions
wherever that process is haltingly underway."-Judith Adler Hellman, The Americas
"This book is must reading for scholars with an interest in contemporary
Mexican politics and society. It is the definitive study of the
emergence and demise of the PRD in a few brief years between the
late 1980s and the early 1990s."-Charles L. Davis, American Political
Science Review
"This is an important source for understanding current trends in
Mexican political development, and it has broader application for
understanding party development and political change cross-nationally.
Its extensive use of field research, including interviews with major
participants, local case studies of party organization, and documentary
evidence from party statues and reports, as well as newspaper archives,
contributes to its thoroughness."-Perspectives on Political Science
"This work is impressive in its scholarship, sophisticated in its
analysis, insightful in its examination of Mexican politics, and
commendable for its contribution to the discipline."-Choice
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 creation
and consolidation and about the sources of party system change and
democratization.
This book is the only major study in English of the origins and
trajectory of the PRD, the party that today represents the unified
Mexican left. Kathleen Bruhn draws on extensive field research,
including interviews of major participants, local case studies of
party organization, documentary evidence from party statutes and
reports, and newspaper archives, as well as a statistical analysis
of the basis of the left vote. The insights Bruhn offers into the
different conditions that affect the functioning of political parties
in their emergence and in their later consolidation apply broadly
to many developing countries, but they especially help us understand
the possibilities for greater democracy in Mexico today. |
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