View source for Institutional Revolutionary Party

{{Short description|Mexican political party}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox political party
| name             = Institutional Revolutionary Party
| native_name      = Partido Revolucionario Institucional
| logo             = PRI logo (Mexico).svg
| logo_size        = 150
| colorcode        = {{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}
| president        = [[Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas]]
| secretary_general = [[Carolina Viggiano Austria]]
| leader1_title    = Senate leader
| leader1_name     = [[Manuel Añorve Baños]]
| leader2_title    = Chamber leader
| leader2_name     = [[Rubén Moreira Valdez]]
| founder          = [[Plutarco Elías Calles]]
| foundation       = {{start date|1929|3|4|df=yes}} (as {{abbr|PNR|Partido Nacional Revolucionario}})<br/>30 March 1938 (as {{abbr|PRM|Partido de la Revolución Mexicana}})<br/>18 January 1946 (as {{abbr|PRI|Partido Revolucionario Institucional}})
| split            = [[Laborist Party (Mexico)|Laborist Party]]
| headquarters     = Av. Insurgentes Norte 59 col. Buenavista 06359 [[Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City]]
| newspaper        = ''La República''
| membership       = 1,411,889 (2023 {{estimation}})<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ine.mx/actores-politicos/partidos-politicos-nacionales/padron-afiliados/ | title=Padrón de afiliados }}</ref>
| youth_wing       = ''Red Jóvenes x México''
| wing1_title      = [[Trade union|Trade union wing]]
| wing1            = [[Confederation of Mexican Workers]]
| ideology         = {{ubl|class=nowrap
|[[Big tent|Catch-all politics]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/el-partido-revolucionario-institucional-pri-explainer|publisher=[[Wilson Center]]|title=El Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) - Explainer|date=24 October 2023|access-date=30 July 2025}}</ref>
|[[Constitutionalists in the Mexican Revolution|Constitutionalism]]{{refn|<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/105/10502708.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/105/10502708.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=El Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Algunas Notas sobre su Pasado Inmediato para su Comprensión en un Momento de Reorientación. Los Años Recientes |author=Carlos Báez Silva |journal=Convergencia: Revista de Ciencias Sociales |publisher=Convergencia |pages=5, 6 |date=May 2001 |issn=1405-1435}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=770pDwAAQBAJ&q=constitucionalismo+partido+revolucionario+institucional&pg=PA220 |title=El constitucionalismo en el continente americano |author=Daniel Bonilla Maldonado |publisher=Siglo del Hombre |pages=219, 220 |date=18 April 2016|isbn=9789586653862 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archivos.juridicas.unam.mx/www/bjv/libros/9/4426/1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://archivos.juridicas.unam.mx/www/bjv/libros/9/4426/1.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=Constitucionalismo en el siglo XXI |author=Francisco Paoli Bolio |publisher=Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de las Revoluciones de México |date=2017}}</ref>}}
 |[[Revolutionary nationalism]]{{refn|<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nexos.com.mx/?p=29470 |title=Nota sobre el nacionalismo claudicante |author=José Antonio Aguilar Rivera |newspaper=[[Nexos]] |date=31 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.excelsior.com.mx/opinion/laura-rojas/2014/08/17/976627 |title=La muerte del nacionalismo revolucionario |author=Laura Rojas |newspaper=[[Excélsior]] |date=17 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://distintaslatitudes.net/autoridad-y-memoria-el-partido-revolucionario-institucional-autoridad-y-memoria-el-partido-revolucionario-institucional#_edn1 |title=Autoridad y Memoria: El Partido Revolucionario Institucional |author=Juan Jose de la Cruz Arana |newspaper=Distintas Latitudes |date=16 February 2012}}</ref>}}
 |'''Historical:'''
 |[[Social democracy]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2008/08/02/index.php?section=politica&article=006n1pol | title=Se transforma el PRI en "socialdemócrata" por acuerdo de su comisión de deliberación – la Jornada }}</ref>
}}
| position         = [[Centrism|Centre]]<ref name="Centre political position">Multiple sources:
* Eluniversal.com.mx, Septiembre de 2006, México. ''[http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/editoriales/36869.html PRI: ¿ave fénix?"]''.
* {{citation |first=Kathleen |last=Bruhn |title=Urban Protest in Mexico and Brazil |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2008 |page=18 |isbn=9781139470636 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lQQ4uli5dCQC&pg=PA18 }}
* {{citation |first=K. Larry |last=Storrs |title=Mexico-U.S. Relations |work=Mexico: Migration, U.S. Economic Issues and Counter Narcotic Efforts |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=2005 |page=56 |isbn=9781594546501 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJGSl3yWg48C&pg=PA56 }}
* {{citation |first1=David J. |last1=Samuels |first2=Matthew S. |last2=Shugart |title=Presidents, Parties, and Prime Ministers: How the Separation of Powers Affects Party Organization and Behavior |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |page=141 |isbn=9781139489379 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PtQgsQzC080C&pg=PA141 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Arredondo |first=Armando Ojeda |date=2017-03-20 |title=Cartelera panorámica de propaganda política de elecciones federales 2015 en Ciudad Juárez, México, con fotografías analizadas desde el visual framing |url=https://www.ricsh.org.mx/index.php/RICSH/article/view/112 |journal=RICSH Revista Iberoamericana de las Ciencias Sociales y Humanísticas |language=es |volume=6 |issue=11 |issn=2395-7972 |quote=En el análisis de la muestra de espectaculares fotografías de  los candidatos a diputados federales, se encontró que contendieron 10 partidos políticos, los cuales muestransu nombre, sus siglas y su posición ideológica. Estos fueron: Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) (Centro, Centro derecha); Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) (Derecha, Centro derecha); Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) (Centroizquierda); Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (MORENA)(Izquierda); Partido   Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM) (Derecha); Movimiento   Ciudadano (MC) (Centroizquierda); Nueva   Alianza (PANAL) (Centro, Centroderecha); Partido del  Trabajo (PT) (Izquierda); Partido Encuentro Social (PES) (Derecha, Centroderecha); Partido  Humanista (PH) (No  tiene  una  posición definida) |archive-date=18 June 2022 |access-date=21 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618131138/https://www.ricsh.org.mx/index.php/RICSH/article/view/112 |url-status=dead }}</ref> to [[Centre-right politics|centre-right]]<ref name="Centre-right political position">Multiple sources:
* {{cite news |url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english/meade-king-mexican-sandwich |title=Meade, the King of the Mexican Sandwich |newspaper=[[El Universal (Mexico City)|El Universal]] |date=11 January 2018 }}
* {{cite book |last=Russell |first=James W. |title=Class and Race Formation in North America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZgR6ubuUXcC&pg=PA155 |date=2009 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-9678-4 |page=155 }}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L2jwAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Institutional+Revolutionary+Party%22+center-right&pg=PA334 |title=Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order |first1=Jeffrey |last1=Kopstein |first2=Mark |last2=Lichbach |first3=Stephen E. |last3=Hanson |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139991384 |access-date=6 April 2018 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Arredondo |first=Armando Ojeda |date=2017-03-20 |title=Cartelera panorámica de propaganda política de elecciones federales 2015 en Ciudad Juárez, México, con fotografías analizadas desde el visual framing |url=https://www.ricsh.org.mx/index.php/RICSH/article/view/112 |journal=RICSH Revista Iberoamericana de las Ciencias Sociales y Humanísticas |language=es |volume=6 |issue=11 |issn=2395-7972 |quote=En el análisis de la muestra de espectaculares fotografías de  los candidatos a diputados federales, se encontró que contendieron 10 partidos políticos, los cuales muestransu nombre, sus siglas y su posición ideológica. Estos fueron: Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) (Centro, Centro derecha); Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) (Derecha, Centro derecha); Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) (Centroizquierda); Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (MORENA)(Izquierda); Partido   Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM) (Derecha); Movimiento   Ciudadano (MC) (Centroizquierda); Nueva   Alianza (PANAL) (Centro, Centroderecha); Partido del  Trabajo (PT) (Izquierda); Partido Encuentro Social (PES) (Derecha, Centroderecha); Partido  Humanista (PH) (No  tiene  una  posición definida) |archive-date=18 June 2022 |access-date=21 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618131138/https://www.ricsh.org.mx/index.php/RICSH/article/view/112 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{cref|A}}
| continental      = [[COPPPAL]]<ref name=que>{{cite web|url=http://www.copppal.org.ar/index.php/institucional/institucional/91-ique-es-la-copppal.html|title=¿Qué es la COPPPAL?|access-date=16 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325185755/http://www.copppal.org.ar/index.php/institucional/institucional/91-ique-es-la-copppal.html|archive-date=25 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| seats1_title     = [[Chamber of Deputies (Mexico)|Chamber of Deputies]]
| seats1           = {{composition bar|37|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}|background-color=#FFFFFF|per=1}}
| seats2_title     = [[Senate of the Republic (Mexico)|Senate]]
| seats2           = {{composition bar|13|128|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}|background-color=#FFFFFF|per=1}}
| seats3_title     = [[List of current state governors in Mexico|Governorships]]
| seats3           = {{composition bar|2|32|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}|background-color=#FFFFFF|per=1}}
| seats4_title     = [[List of Mexican state congresses|State legislatures]]
| seats4           = {{composition bar|90|1123|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}|background-color=#FFFFFF|per=1}}
| website          = {{Official URL}}
| country          = Mexico
| footnotes        = {{cnote|A|Also described as a [[big tent]] party.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Jon Vanden Heuvel, Everette E. Dennis |title=Changing Patterns: Latin America's Vital Media: a Report of The Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University in the City of New York |page=20 |date=1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor=Niko Vorobyov |title=Dopeworld: Adventures in Drug Lands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lHUKBAAAQBAJ&q=taiwan+far-right+NP&pg=PA44 |quote= ... Mexico spent most of the twentieth century governed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI, a bigtent, catch-all alliance that included everyone ... |date=2019 |publisher=[[Hachette UK]]|isbn=9781317755098 }}</ref>}}
}}

The '''Institutional Revolutionary Party''' ({{langx|es|Partido Revolucionario Institucional}}, {{IPA|es|paɾˈtiðo reβolusjoˈnaɾjo jnstitusjoˈnal|pron}}, '''PRI''') is a [[List of political parties in Mexico|political party in Mexico]] that was founded in 1929 as the '''National Revolutionary Party''' ({{langx|es|Partido Nacional Revolucionario|links=no}}, '''PNR'''). It became then the '''Party of the Mexican Revolution''' ({{langx|es|Partido de la Revolución Mexicana|links=no}}, '''PRM''') in 1938 and the PRI in 1946. The party held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000. 

The PNR was founded in 1929 by [[Plutarco Elías Calles]], Mexico's paramount leader and self-proclaimed {{lang|es|Jefe Máximo}} (Supreme Chief) of the [[Mexican Revolution]]. The party was created with the intent of providing a political space in which all the surviving leaders and combatants of the Mexican Revolution could participate to solve the severe political crisis caused by the assassination of president-elect [[Álvaro Obregón]] in 1928. Although Calles himself fell into political disgrace and was exiled in 1936, the party continued ruling Mexico until 2000, changing names twice until it became the PRI.

The PRI governed Mexico as a ''de-facto'' [[one-party state]] for the majority of the twentieth century. Not only were all Presidents of the Republic members of the PRI, all members of the [[Senate of Mexico|Senate]] belonged to the PRI until 1976, and all state governors were also from the PRI until 1989. Throughout the seven decades that the PRI governed Mexico, the party used [[corporatism]], [[co-option]], [[electoral fraud]], and political repression to maintain political power. While Mexico benefited from an [[Mexican miracle|economic boom]] which improved the quality of life of most people and created political stability during the early decades of the party's rule, issues such as inequality, corruption, and a lack of political freedoms gave rise to growing opposition against the PRI. Amid the [[Protests of 1968|global climate of social unrest in 1968]] dissidents, primarily students, protested during the [[1968 Summer Olympics|Olympic games held in Mexico City.]] Tensions escalated, culminating in the [[Tlatelolco massacre]], in which the [[Mexican Army]] killed hundreds of unarmed demonstrators in Mexico City. Subsequently, a series of economic crises beginning in the 1970s affected the living standards of much of the population.

Throughout its nine-decade existence, the party has represented a [[big tent|very wide array of ideologies]], typically following from the policies of the [[President of Mexico|President of the Republic]]. Starting as a center-left party during the [[Maximato]], it moved leftward in the 1930s during the presidency of [[Lázaro Cárdenas]], and gradually shifted to the right starting from 1940 after Cárdenas left office and [[Manuel Ávila Camacho]] became president. PRI administrations controversially adopted [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] economic policies during the 1980s and 90s, as well as during [[Enrique Peña Nieto]]'s presidency (2012–2018). In 2024, the party formally renounced neoliberalism and rebranded itself as a "center-left" party.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ochoa |first1=Ximena |title=¿El PRI se perfila a la izquierda? El tricolor apuesta por la “expulsión del neoliberalismo” |url=https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2024/07/07/el-pri-se-perfila-a-la-izquierda-el-tricolor-apuesta-por-la-expulsion-del-neoliberalimo/ |access-date=27 March 2025 |work=Infobae |language=Spanish}}</ref>

In 1990, Peruvian writer [[Mario Vargas Llosa]] famously described Mexico under the PRI as being "the perfect dictatorship", stating: "I don't believe that there has been in Latin America any case of a system of dictatorship which has so efficiently recruited the [[Intelligentsia|intellectual milieu]], bribing it with great subtlety. The perfect dictatorship is not communism, nor the [[USSR]], nor [[Fidel Castro]]; the perfect dictatorship is Mexico. Because it is a camouflaged dictatorship."<ref name=terra>''Terra.'' 2010 October 7. [https://archive.today/20130112184033/http://www.terra.com.mx/noticias/articulo/973216/Vargas+Llosa+a+20+anos+de+Mexico+es+una+dictadura+perfecta.htm Vargas Llosa a 20 años de "México es una dictadura perfecta"] (Vargas Llosa, 20 years after "Mexico is a perfect dictatorship").</ref><ref>''El País'' (Madrid). 1990 September 1. [http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/AZUA/_FELIX_DE/TRIAS/_EUGENIO/VARGAS_LLOSA/_MARIO/MARSE/_JUAN_/ESCRITOR/PAZ/_OCTAVIO/SARAMAGO/elpepicul/19900901elpepicul_1/Tes Vargas Llosa: "México es la dictadura perfecta"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111024235439/http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/AZUA/_FELIX_DE/TRIAS/_EUGENIO/VARGAS_LLOSA/_MARIO/MARSE/_JUAN_/ESCRITOR/PAZ/_OCTAVIO/SARAMAGO/elpepicul/19900901elpepicul_1/Tes |date=24 October 2011}}</ref> The phrase became popular in Mexico and around the world until the PRI fell from power in 2000.

Despite losing the presidency in the [[2000 Mexican general election|2000 elections]], and [[2006 Mexican general election|2006]] presidential candidate [[Roberto Madrazo]] finishing in third place without carrying a single state, the PRI continued to control most state governments through the 2000s and performed strongly at local levels. As a result, the PRI won the [[2009 Mexican legislative election|2009 legislative election]], and in [[2012 Mexican general election|2012]] its candidate [[Enrique Peña Nieto]] regained the presidency. However, dissatisfaction with the Peña Nieto administration led to the PRI's defeat in the [[2018 Mexican general election|2018]] and [[2024 Mexican general election|2024 presidential elections]] with the worst performances in the party's history.

==Overview==
===Profile===
[[File:OFICINAS_CENTRAL_DEL_P._R._I..jpg|thumb|250px|Central offices of the Institutional Revolutionary Party]]

The adherents of the PRI are known in Mexico as ''Priístas'' and the party is nicknamed ''El tricolor'' (the Tricolor) because of its use of the Mexican national colors of green, white and red as they appear on the [[Flag of Mexico|Mexican flag]].

Formed from an amalgamation of the various ideologies of the [[Constitutionalists in the Mexican Revolution|Constitutionalists]], the party originated on the centre-left of the [[political spectrum]]. It experienced a sharp, leftward turn during the presidency of [[Lázaro Cárdenas]] who instituted extensive reforms, including the [[Pemex|nationalization of Mexico's petroleum]] and telecommunication industries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pérez Montfort |first=Ricardo |date=2022-06-30 |title=Tzvi Medin y su Ideología y praxis política de Lázaro Cárdenas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.61490/eial.v33i1.1753 |journal=Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=69–77 |doi=10.61490/eial.v33i1.1753 |issn=0792-7061|doi-access=free }}</ref> Furthermore his administration carried out extensive land reform and oversaw the largest campaign of land expropriation in Latin American history.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Charles H. Weston Jr |date=January 1983 |title=The Political Legacy of Lázaro Cárdenas |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/americas/article/abs/political-legacy-of-lazaro-cardenas/4071FCEEDE8607F700EEC796F27FFEE7 |journal=The Americas |language=en |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=383–405 |doi=10.2307/981231 |jstor=981231 |issn=0003-1615|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dominguez |first=Francisco |date=2018 |title=The sui generis Impact of the Russian Revolution on Latin America |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/jglobfaul.4.2.0123 |journal=Journal of Global Faultlines |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=123–137 |doi=10.13169/jglobfaul.4.2.0123 |jstor=10.13169/jglobfaul.4.2.0123 |issn=2397-7825|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}</ref> His successor [[Manuel Ávila Camacho]], presided over a rightward shift that escalated in the 1980s. At the start of the decade, the party moved to the centre-right and later [[Right-wing politics|right]] pursuing policies such as [[privatization|privatizing]] state-run companies, establishing closer relations with the [[Catholic Church in Mexico|Catholic Church]], and embracing [[laissez-faire|free-market capitalism]].<ref name="Universal">{{cite news |url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english/meade-king-mexican-sandwich |title=Meade, the King of the Mexican Sandwich |newspaper=[[El Universal (Mexico City)|El Universal]] |date=11 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="Russell2009">{{cite book |last=Russell |first=James W. |title=Class and Race Formation in North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZgR6ubuUXcC&pg=PA155 |date=2009 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-9678-4 |page=155}}</ref><ref name="KopsteinLichbachHanson">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L2jwAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Institutional+Revolutionary+Party%22+center-right&pg=PA334 |title=Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order |first1=Jeffrey |last1=Kopstein |first2=Mark |last2=Lichbach |first3=Stephen E. |last3=Hanson |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139991384 |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref> Subsequently, many left-wing members of the party abandoned the PRI and founded the [[Party of the Democratic Revolution]] ({{lang|es|Partido de la Revolución Democrática}}, PRD) in 1989 following the controversial and fraudulent [[1988 Mexican general election|1988 presidential election.]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cantú |first=Francisco |date=August 2019 |title=The Fingerprints of Fraud: Evidence from Mexico's 1988 Presidential Election |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/fingerprints-of-fraud-evidence-from-mexicos-1988-presidential-election/8F3C1BCA4C53FE85EA48E51321E339E9 |journal=American Political Science Review |language=en |volume=113 |issue=3 |pages=710–726 |doi=10.1017/S0003055419000285 |issn=0003-0554}}</ref>

Some scholars characterise the PRI as a [[Particracy| "state party"]]<ref name="Russell2009"/><ref>{{cite book |last= MacLeod |first= Dag |title= Downsizing the State: Privatization and the Limits of Neoliberal Reform in Mexico |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Vbd4QbQGBT4C&pg=PA37 |date=2005 |publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University Press]] |isbn= 0-271-04669-4 |pages=37–38}}</ref> due to its dominance of domestic politics and the inextricable connection between the party and the identity of the Mexican nation-state for much of the 20th century.

According to Austin Bay, for more than seven decades, the PRI ran Mexico under an "[[Autocracy|autocratic]], endemically corrupt, [[Cronyism|crony]]-ridden government".<ref>{{cite news |title=A New PRI or the Old PRI in Disguise? |url= http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/07/04/mexico_a_new_pri_or_the_old_pri_in_disguise_114691.html |access-date= 1 June 2024 |website= Real Clear Politics |first= Austin |last= Bay |date= 4 July 2012 | quote = History books will tell you that for seven decades, from the end of the Mexican Revolution until the presidential election in 2000, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled Mexico. [...] Mis-ruled, however, is really a more accurate verb. The PRI, screened by a cleverly executed political propaganda operation that combined nationalist passion, socialist rhetoric and fraudulent elections, ran an autocratic, endemically corrupt, crony-ridden government.}}</ref>  The elites of the PRI controlled the police and the judicial system, and were susceptible to [[bribery]].<ref>{{cite news |title=A New PRI or the Old PRI in Disguise? |url= http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/07/04/mexico_a_new_pri_or_the_old_pri_in_disguise_114691.html |access-date=31 January 2017 |website=Real Clear Politics |first=Austin |last=Bay |date=4 July 2012 | quote = Justice was available, if purchased with a bribe. PRI cronies owned the police and the judiciary.}}</ref> During its time in power, the PRI became a symbol of [[corruption]], [[Political repression|repression]], economic mismanagement, and [[electoral fraud]]; many educated Mexicans and urban dwellers in the 21st century worried that its return to power would lead to regression to its worst excesses.<ref name=darkpast>{{cite news |last=Jackson |first=Allison |title=Mexico elections: Voters could return Institutional Revolutionary Party to power |url= http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/120701/mexico-elections-voters-set-return-institutional-revolu |access-date=7 July 2012 |newspaper=[[Global Post]] |date=1 July 2012}}</ref>

The PRI became a full member of the [[Socialist International]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Full Member Parties |url=http://www.socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm?ArticlePageID=931 |publisher=[[Socialist International]] |access-date=11 January 2016}}</ref> in 2003<ref>[https://www.socialistinternational.org/congresses/xxii-congress-of-the-socialist-international-sao-paulo/decision-of-the-congress-regarding-membership/ Decision of the Congress regarding Membership: XXII Congress of the Socialist International, São Paulo, 27–29 October 2003] – "Change of Status{:] To full membership[:] [...] Mexico: Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI"</ref> until its expulsion in 2025.<ref>{{cite web |last=Castillo Jiménez |first=Elia |date=2025-12-03 |title=La Internacional Socialista expulsa al PRI |trans-title=The Socialist International expels the PRI |url=https://elpais.com/mexico/2025-12-03/la-internacional-socialista-expulsa-al-pri-por-sus-acciones.html |website=[[El País]] |language=es |access-date=2025-12-03}}</ref> It was also considered a [[Social democracy|social democratic]] party.<ref>Compare:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Purdy
 |first1               = Elizabeth
 |editor-last1         = Carlisle
 |editor-first1        = Rodney P.
 |date                 = 2005
 |chapter              = Mexico
 |title                = Encyclopedia of Politics
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=Z6I5DQAAQBAJ
 |volume               = 1: The Left
 |publication-place    = Thousand Oaks, California
 |publisher            = Sage
 |page                 = 765
 |isbn                 = 9781412904094
 |access-date          = 1 June 2024
 |quote                = [...] control of the ruling party has consistently swung from left to right and back again, making the PRI's ideology difficult to pinpoint. [...] The [[Lázaro Cárdenas|Cárdenas]] regime [1934 to 1940], with its policies of land reform, support for the {{lang|es|ejidos}}, its nationalization of petroleum, as well as its foreign policy of supporting the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, came closest to the social-democratic model of European states.
}} 
</ref>

According to one PRI figure, following the party's defeat in the 2000 presidential election, "It's a party that began as leftist and little by little moved toward the center. We will continue to occupy the same space."<ref>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7YVGAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=PRI+It%E2%80%99s+a+party+that+began+as+leftist+and+little+by+little+moved+toward+the+center.+We+will+continue+to+occupy+the+same+space&article_id=2789,1220644&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjso4m2pqiMAxX0XEEAHf1JMXoQ6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=PRI%20It%E2%80%99s%20a%20party%20that%20began%20as%20leftist%20and%20little%20by%20little%20moved%20toward%20the%20center.%20We%20will%20continue%20to%20occupy%20the%20same%20space&f=false The Daily Gazette 6 Jul 2000]</ref>

===Etymology===
The name "Institutional Revolutionary Party" appears as an [[oxymoron]] or [[paradox]], as the term "revolution" may imply the destruction of institutions.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Gallo |first1= Rubén |title= New Tendencies in Mexican Art: The 1990s |date= 2004 |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |location= New York |isbn= 9781403982650 |pages= 135 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BQPGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA135 |access-date= 13 December 2015 | quote = Don't revolutions, by definition, do away with institutions?}}</ref> According to [[Rubén Gallo]], the concept of institutionalizing the revolution refers to the [[Corporatism|corporatist]] nature of the party; the PRI subsumed the "disruptive energy" of the [[Mexican Revolution]] by [[co-opting]] and incorporating its enemies into the party's [[bureaucratic]] régime.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Gallo |first1= Rubén |title= New Tendencies in Mexican Art: The 1990s |date= 2004 |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |location= New York |isbn= 9781403982650 |page= 135 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BQPGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA135 |access-date= 13 December 2015 | quote = Perhaps the PRI's greatest achievement – as well as the strategy that allowed it to retain power for so long – was that it found a way to institutionalize the Mexican Revolution. … as paradoxical as the project might sound. [...] Calles [...] decided to institutionalize the Revolution and subsume its disruptive energy into a mammoth bureaucracy. [...]Institutionalizing became the PRI's most cunning strategy of survival. [...] Whenever it faced opposition from the outside, the party would respond by incorporating the rebellious group or individual into its massive bureaucracy.}}</ref> 

===Party practices===
There is a lexicon of terms used to describe people and practices of the PRI, that were fully operative until the 1990s. The most important was the {{lang | es | dedazo}}, with the finger ({{langx |es| dedo}}) of the president pointing to the next PRI candidate for the presidency, meaning the president choosing his successor. Right up to the moment the president considered optimal, several pre-candidates would attempt to demonstrate their loyalty to the President and their high competence in their respective positions, usually as prominent members of the cabinet. Until the 2000 election, the party had no direct input into the president's decision, although he could consult with constituencies. The president's decision was a closely-kept secret, even from the victor.

The {{lang | es | destape}} (the unveiling), that is, the announcement of the president's choice, would occur at the PRI's National Assembly (which would typically take place in November of the year prior to the elections), with losing pre-candidates learning only then themselves.<ref>Garrido, Luis Javier, "Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico''. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 1059.</ref> Once the {{lang | es | destape}} occurred, in general the members of the PRI would demonstrate their enthusiasm for the candidate and their loyalty to the party, known as the {{lang | es | cargada}}. But the {{lang | es | destape}} was also a delicate moment, for party unity depended on the losers acceding to the president's choice without public rancor or dissent. When President [[Miguel de la Madrid]] (in office: 1982 to 1988) chose [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]] as the candidate in 1988, [[Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas]] and [[Porfirio Muñoz Ledo]] left the PRI to form a separate party, and Cárdenas challenged Salinas at the polls. The [[Mexican general election, 1988|1988 presidential election]] which followed is widely considered to have been fraudulent,<ref>Castañeda, Jorge G. ''Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents Were Chosen''. New York: The New Press 2000, p 74</ref> and was confirmed as such by former president [[Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado]] and in an analysis by the ''[[American Political Science Review]]''.

The term {{lang | es | alquimistas}} (alchemists) referred to PRI specialists in vote-rigging. To achieve a complete sweep of elections – the {{lang | es | carro completo}} ("full car") – the party used the campaign mechanism of the {{lang | es | acarreo}} ("hauling"), the practice of trucking PRI-supporters to rallies to cheer the candidate and to polling places to cast votes – in exchange for gifts of some kind.<ref>Preston, Julia and Samuel Dillon, ''Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2004, p. 56</ref> The party would shift voting booths from one place to another, making it difficult for people to cast their votes.

==Presidential succession before the party, 1920–1928==
[[File:Plutarco Calles-TIME-1924.jpg|thumb|[[Plutarco Elías Calles]] on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine in 1924]]
When it was founded in 1929, the party structure created a means to control political power and to perpetuate it with regular elections validating the party's choice. Before the party was founded, political parties were not generally the means in which to achieve the presidency. The creation of the party in the wake of the assassination of revolutionary general, former president, and in 1928 president-elect [[Alvaro Obregón]] had laid bare the problem of presidential succession with no institutional structures. Obregón was one of three revolutionary generals from Sonora, with [[Plutarco Elías Calles]] and [[Adolfo de la Huerta]], who were important for the post-revolutionary history of Mexico. Their collective and then internecine struggles for power in the decade after the end of the military phase of the Mexican Revolution had a direct impact on the formation of the party in 1929.

[[File:Alvaro Obregón.jpg|thumb|left|200px|President [[Álvaro Obregón]] in a business suit, tailored to show that he lost his right arm in the [[Mexican Revolution]] and whose assassination in 1928 touched off a political crisis leading to the formation of the party]]
In 1920, the Sonorans staged a coup against President [[Venustiano Carranza]], the civilian First Chief of the [[Constitutionalist]] faction that had won the [[Mexican Revolution]]. Carranza had attempted to impose his own candidate for the presidency, [[Ignacio Bonillas]]. Bonillas had zero revolutionary credentials and no power base of his own, with the implication that Carranza intended to hold onto power after the end of his term. This would have been a violation of the no re-election principle of post-revolutionary Mexico, which had its origins in the 19th century. With the support of the revolutionary army, the Sonoran generals' [[Plan of Agua Prieta]] successfully challenged Carranza's attempt to perpetuate his power; Carranza was killed as he was fleeing the country. De la Huerta became interim president of Mexico and Obregón was elected president for a four-year term, 1920–1924.

As Obregón's four-year term was ending, Calles made a bid for the presidency. De la Huerta, a fellow Sonoran, challenged Calles with a massive and bloody uprising, supported by other revolutionary generals opposed to Calles. The De la Huerta rebellion was crushed, but the outbreak of violence was only a few years after the apparent end of the Mexican Revolution, raising the specter of renewed violence.<ref>Benjamin, Thomas. "Rebuilding the Nation" in ''The Oxford History of Mexico''. New York: Oxford University Press 2000, pp. 471–475.</ref> Calles succeeded Obregón in 1924, and shortly thereafter he began enforcing the restrictions on the Catholic Church in the year of 1917 Constitution, resulting in a huge rebellion by those opposed to such restrictions, known as the [[Cristero War]] (1926–29). The Cristero War was ongoing when elections were to be held.

Obregón sought to run again for the presidency in 1928 to succeed Calles, but because of the principle of no-re-election in the Mexican Constitution, the two Sonorans sought a loophole to allow the former president to run. The Constitution was amended to allow re-election if the terms were not-consecutive. With that change, Obregón ran in the 1928 election and won; but before his inauguration he was assassinated by a religious fanatic. Given that Calles had just served as president, even with the constitutional change to allow a form of re-election, he was ineligible to run. The founding of a national political party that had an existence beyond elections became the mechanism to control the power through peaceful means.

==Founding of the Party==
{{see also|President of the Institutional Revolutionary Party}}
{{multiple image
| align = right
| image1 = Logo_Partido_Nacional_Revolucionario.svg
| width1 = 146
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = 
| image2 = Plutarco Elias Calles.jpg
| width2 = 126
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = 
| footer = Emblem of the National Revolutionary Party (1929–1938) which was founded by [[Plutarco Elías Calles]], [[President of Mexico]] from 1924 to 1928
}}
The party had two names before taking its third and current name; however, its core has remained the same. It has been characterized as "in the 1960s as 'strongly dominant party', in the 1970s a 'pragmatic hegemonic state', and in the 1990s as a 'single party'".<ref>Garrido, Luis Javier, "Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico''. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 1058</ref> The close relationship between the PRI and the Mexican state has been examined by a number of scholars.<ref>Padgett, Vincent Leon, ''Popular Participation in the Mexican 'One-Party System'''. Evanston, IL: [[Northwestern University Press]], 1955.</ref><ref>Ames, Barry. "Bases of Support for Mexico's Dominant Party." ''American Political Science Review'', issue 64 (March 1970).</ref>

===PNR (1929–1938)===
<blockquote><small> "Today we have the chance, unique in many years, to go from the category of a country of [[caudillo]]s, to a Nation of Institutions." - [[Plutarco Elías Calles]], during his last Address to the Congress on 1 September 1928.<ref>{{cite web |title=Discurso de Plutarco Elías Calles al abrir las sesiones ordinarias del Congreso. Informe Presidencial |url=https://www.memoriapoliticademexico.org/Textos/6Revolucion/1928INP.html |website=Memoria Política de México |access-date=20 July 2020}}</ref></small></blockquote>
Even though the armed phase of the [[Mexican Revolution]] had ended in 1920, Mexico continued to encounter political unrest. A grave political crisis caused by the July 1928 assassination of [[President of Mexico|president]]-elect [[Álvaro Obregón]] led to the founding on 4 March 1929 of the National Revolutionary Party ({{langx|es|Partido Nacional Revolucionario}}, PNR) by [[Plutarco Elías Calles]], Mexico's president from 1924 to 1928. [[Emilio Portes Gil]] was interim president of Mexico from December 1928 until February 1930, while a political rather than military solution was sought for presidential succession.

The intent to found the party was to institutionalize the power of particular victors of [[Mexican Revolution]]. Calles was ineligible to run for president, since he had just completed a four-year term, because of the prohibition in the 1917 Constitution of re-election directly after serving a term as president. Calles sought to stop the violent struggle for power between the victorious factions of the Revolution, particularly around the presidential elections and to guarantee the peaceful transmission of power for members of the party. A conclave of revolutionary generals including Calles met to create a national party, forging together their various regional strongholds. They were not primarily concerned with ideology, but rather to hold power.<ref>Grayson, George, ''Mexico" From Corporatism to Pluralism?''. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers 1998, p. 18</ref><ref>Preston and Dillon, ''Opening Mexico'', p. 50.</ref> Formally, the PNR was a political party, but it has been labeled a "confederation of [[cacique]]s" ("political bosses").<ref>Garrido, Javier Luis. ''El Partido de la Revolución Institucionizada''. Mexico City: Siglo XXI p. 103.</ref>

The new party-in-formation did not contain any labor elements. At the time, the strongest labor organization was the [[Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers]] (CROM) controlled by [[Luis N. Morones]], the political wing of which was the [[Laborist Party (Mexico)|Laborist Party]]. Calles went to the Laborist Party convention and addressed the membership in a conciliatory fashion, but Morones launched into a diatribe against [[Emilio Portes Gil]], the interim president of Mexico, for disrespecting Morones personally. It was a political gaffe for Calles, and he withdrew from the organizing committee of the party, but he turned it to his advantage in the long run, appearing to be a referee or arbiter in the party, and impartial senior statesman.<ref>Buchenau, Jürgen. ''Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution''. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield 2007, 149.</ref>

[[File:Pascual Ortiz Rubio in Los Angeles, 1932.jpg|thumb|[[Pascual Ortiz Rubio]], candidate of the PNR in the [[1929 Mexican presidential election|1929 presidential election]]]]
The PNR incorporated other political parties under its umbrella, the ''Partido Radical Tabasqueño'', of [[Tomás Garrido Canabal]]; the Yucatán-based ''Partido Socialists del Sureste'', of [[Felipe Carrillo Puerto]]; and the ''Partido Socialista Fronterizo'' of Emilio Portes Gil, the current interim president. CROM's political arm, the Laborist Party, was not part of the coalition.<ref>Buchenau,''Plutarco Elías Calles'', p.150</ref> The party developed a written set of principles and a platform that drew support from ''agraristas'' and workers in the Laborist Party. "The PNR is the instrument of political action by means of which Mexico's great campesino and worker masses fight to keep control of the public power in their hands, a control wrested from the landowning and privileged minorities through the great armed movement that began in 1910."<ref>quoted in Buchenau,''Plutarco Elías Calles'', p.150</ref>

One possible presidential candidate for the PNR was [[Aarón Sáenz Garza]], former governor of the state of [[Nuevo León]], who was the brother-in-law of Calles's son, and was involved with Calles family businesses, but his political views were too far to the right of the PNR to be considered. Ideology trumped family connections. The choice fell to [[Pascual Ortiz Rubio]], a revolutionary general who had been out the country, serving as Mexico's ambassador to Brazil, so had no political base in Mexico.<ref>Buchenau,''Plutarco Elías Calles'', p.151</ref>

When the [[1929 Mexican general election]] was held, the first political test of the newly founded party. Calles made a speech in June 1929 saying that while the Revolution had produced achievements in the economic and social spheres that in the political sphere it was a failure. He called for a "struggle of ideas" that invited the formation of new parties. The PNR had as its candidate [[Pascual Ortiz Rubio]], but running against him as the candidate for the Anti-Reelectionist Party was the high-profile former Secretary of Education, [[José Vasconcelos]]. Vasconcelos had considerable support among university students, the middle class, intellectuals, and some workers from Mexico's northeast. According to historian [[Enrique Krauze]], the 1929 campaign saw the PNR's "initiation into the technology of electoral fraud, a 'science' that later became its highly refined speciality." Tactics included breaking up political meetings and insults, to the extreme of murder of Vasconcelos supporters. Ortiz Rubio won the election in a landslide, but the results would likely have been different were the election clean. The party did largely contain the political violence of former revolutionary generals.<ref>Krauze, Enrique. ''Mexico: Biography of Power''. pp. 429-31</ref>
[[File:General Lázaro Cárdenas del Río.jpg|thumb|[[Lázaro Cárdenas]] in 1937]]
In the first years of the party's existence, the PNR was the only political machine in existence. During this period, known as ''[[Maximato]]'' (named after the title Calles gave himself as "Maximum Chief of the Revolution"), Calles remained the dominant leader of the country and Ortiz Rubio (1929–32) and [[Abelardo L. Rodríguez]] (1932–34), have been considered in practice subordinates of Calles.

Calles chose revolutionary general [[Lázaro Cárdenas]] as the PNR candidate for the [[1934 Mexican general election]].<ref name=uooovzb>{{cite web |url=http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/280-the-mexican-revolution-consolidation-1920-40-part-2 |title=The Mexican Revolution - Consolidation (1920–40) Part 2 |website=Mexconnect |date=9 October 2008}}</ref> Cárdenas was originally from the southern state of Michoacan, but he joined the Revolution in the north, serving with Calles. The ''Jefe Máximo'' had no idea that Cárdenas would take his own path as he settled into the presidency. He had campaigned widely throughout the country, making a national reputation for himself and forming personal connections throughout the country outside the corridors of power. Calles had become increasingly conservative in his views, ending land reform for all practical purposes and cracking down on organized labor. Under Cárdenas, unions went on strike and were not suppressed by the government. As Cárdenas increasingly diverged in his thinking and practice from Calles, Calles sought to regain control. Cárdenas, however, had outmaneuvered Calles politically, gaining allies among labor unions and peasants as well as the Catholic Church. Calles had attempted to strictly enforce the anticlerical provisions of the Constitution, which led directly to conflict with the Catholic Church and its loyalists, so that in the conflict between the two generals, the Church sided with Cárdenas. Cárdenas had Calles arrested along with many of his allies, exiling the former president to the United States.

===PRM (1938–1946)===
{{multiple image
| align = left
| image1 = Logo Partido de la Revolucion Mexicana.svg
| width1 = 156
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = 
| image2 = Lazaro cardenas2.jpg
| width2 = 126
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = 
| footer = Emblem of the Party of the Mexican Revolution (1938–1946) which was founded by [[Lázaro Cárdenas]], President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940, being chosen under the PNR since it was not until 1938 that he founded the PRM
}}
Cárdenas became perhaps Mexico's most popular 20th-century president, most renowned for the 1938 [[expropiación petrolera|expropriating the oil interests]] of the [[United States]] and [[Europe]]an [[petroleum]] companies in the run-up to [[World War II]]. That same year Cárdenas put his own stamp on the party, reorganizing it in 1938 as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (Spanish: ''Partido de la Revolución Mexicana'', PRM) whose aim was to establish a democracy of workers and socialism.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mx.geocities.com/revista_esperanza/pri.htm |title=The Foundation of the PRI |date=13 October 2000 |language=es |website=mx.geocities.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091019061627/http://mx.geocities.com/revista_esperanza/pri.htm |archive-date=19 October 2009 }}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=February 2024}} However, this was never achieved.

Cárdenas's intention was to establish the broad-based political alliances necessary for the party's long-term survival, as a national party with territorial presence in state and municipal governments, and organization of mass interest groups, via [[corporatism]]. The structure he established has remained intact. He created sectors of the party and structured them into mass organizations to represent different interest groups within the party, to protect the interests of workers and peasants.<ref>Camp, Roderic Ai. ''Politics in Mexico'', 5th edition. Oxford University Press 2007, p. 137</ref>

The PRM had four sectors: labor, peasant (''campesino''), "popular", mainly teachers and civil servants; and the military. The labor section was organized via the [[Confederation of Mexican Workers]] (CTM); the peasant sector by the [[:es:Confederación Nacional Campesina|National Confederation of Campesinos]], (CNC); and the middle class sector by the Federation of Unions of Workers in Service to the State (FSTSE).<ref>Charles H. Weston, Jr. "The Political Legacy of Lázaro Cárdenas", ''The Americas'' vol. 39, no. 3 (Jan. 1963).</ref> The party incorporated the majority of Mexicans through their mass organizations, but absent from the structure for ideological reasons were two important groups, private business interests and adherents of the Catholic Church.<ref>Camp, ''Politics in Mexico'', p. 150</ref> Those two came together in 1939 to form the [[National Action Party (Mexico)|National Action Party]], which grew to be the major opposition party, winning the presidency in 2000.

The most powerful labor union prior to the formation of the party was the [[Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers]] (CROM), headed by [[Luis N. Morones]], an ally of Obregón and Calles.<ref>Aguilar García, Javier, "Luis Napoleón Morones", in Encyclopedia of Mexico, p. 953. Chicago: Fitzroy and Dearborn 1997, p. 953</ref> A dissident within the CROM, Marxist [[Vicente Lombardo Toledano]], formed a rival labor confederation, the CTM, in 1936, which became the mass organization of labor within the PRM.<ref>Carr, Barry. "Vicente Lombardo Toledano" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico''. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, pp.754-56</ref> Lombardo stepped down from the leadership of the CTM in 1941, after Cárdenas left the presidency. He was replaced by [[Fidel Velázquez]], who remained head of the CTM until his death at age 97.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050217055354/http://ueinternational.org/vol2spec.html Fidel Velázquez obituary] </ref> Within the party structure and the government, labor has had a continuous, formalized, visual corporate role, but with Velázquez's death in 1997, organized labor has fractured.<ref>Camp, ''Politics in Mexico'', pp. 154-55</ref>

Peasants were organized via the ''Confederación Nacional Campesina'' (CNC), or National Peasant Confederation, which Cárdenas saw as a force against landowners, but it became the vehicle for patron-client / state-campesino relationships. Whether the intention or not of Cárdenas, the CNC became a means to channel and control the peasantry.<ref>Stanford, Lois, "Confederación Nacional Campesina (CNC)" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico''.Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, pp. 286–289.</ref>

The so-called "popular" sector of the party was organized via the ''Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares'' (CNOP), which was formed in 1943 to integrate sectors of the urban middle class into the party. Unlike the peasantry or labor, the popular sector was a more ill-defined segment, but it did include the large Federation of Unions of Civil Servants (''Federación de Sindicatos de Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado'' (FSTSE).<ref>Davis, Diane, "Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares" (CNOP). Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, pp. 289-94.</ref>

By incorporating the military into the PRM structure, Cárdenas's aim was to make it politically dependent on the party rather than allow it to be a separate group outside the party and potentially a politically interventionist force. Although some critics questioned the military's incorporation into the party, Cárdenas saw it as a way to assert civilian control. He is quoted as saying, "We did not put the Army in politics. It was already there. In fact it had been dominating the situation, and we did well to reduce its voice to one in four."<ref>quoted in Edwin Lieuwen, ''Mexican Militarism: The Political Rise and fall of the Revolutionary Army, 1919–1940''. ''Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press'', 1968. p. 114.</ref> In general, the corporatist model is most often associated with [[fascism]], whose rise in Germany and Italy in the 1930s coincided with Cárdenas's presidency.

[[File:Mexican President Avila Camacho in Monterrey, Mexico - NARA - 196060.jpg|thumb|[[Manuel Ávila Camacho]] in 1943]]
But Cárdenas was emphatically opposed to fascism; however, he created the PRM and organized the Mexican state on authoritarian lines. That reorganization can be seen as the enduring legacy of the Cárdenas presidency. Although the PRM was reorganized into the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1946, the basic structure was retained. Cárdenas's calculation that the military's incorporation into the PRM would undermine its power was essentially correct, since it disappeared as a separate sector of the party, but was absorbed into the "popular" sector.<ref>Weston, "Political Legacy of Lázaro Cárdenas", p. 395.</ref> The organizational change in the PNR to the PRM, and later the PRM to the PRI, were "imposed by Mexican presidents without any discussion within the party."<ref name="auto">Garrido, "Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)", p. 1058.</ref>

Cárdenas followed the pattern of Calles and Obregón before him, designating his choice in the upcoming elections; for Cárdenas this was [[Manuel Ávila Camacho]]. In the 1940 election, Ávila Camacho's main rival was former revolutionary general [[Juan Andreu Almazán]], with PRM victory coming via fraud after a violent campaign period. Cárdenas is said to have secured the support of the CTM and the CNC for Ávila Camacho by personally guaranteeing their interests would be respected.<ref>Weston, "The Political Legacy of Lázaro Cárdenas", p. 400, fn. 53 quoting Brandenburg, Frank. ''The Making of Modern Mexico'', p. 93.</ref>

In the final year of Ávila Camacho's term, the party assembly decided on a new name, pushed by the circle of [[Miguel Alemán Valdés|Miguel Alemán]], the Institutional Revolutionary Party, pairing seemingly contradictory terms of "institutional" and "revolutionary."<ref name="auto"/>

==PRI and Dominant-party state (1946–1988)==
===Change in structure and ideology===

The party's name was changed in 1946, the final year of [[Manuel Ávila Camacho]]'s term of office.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lucas |first=Jeffrey Kent |title=The Rightward Drift of Mexico's Former Revolutionaries: The Case of Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama |year=2010 |location=Lewiston, NY |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |isbn=978-0-7734-3665-7 |pages=171–203}}</ref> The sectoral representation in the party continued for the workers, peasants, and the popular sector, but the military was no longer represented by its own sector. The Mexican president was at the apex of the political system with the PRI. To reach the top of the government, as the candidate and then president of the republic, the path was only through membership and leadership in the party and government service. Within the party, there were factions, the ''técnicos'', bureaucrats with specialized knowledge and training, especially with the economy, and ''políticos'', the seasoned politicians, many of whom had regional roots in state politics.<ref>Smith, "Mexico Since 1946", p. 335.</ref>

[[Miguel Alemán Valdés|Miguel Alemán]] was the PRI's candidate in the 1946 elections, but he did not run unopposed. Alemán and his circle had hoped to abandon sectoral representation in the party and separate the party as an organism of the state, but there was considerable pushback from the labor sector and the CTM, which would have lost influence, along with the other sectors. The structure of the party remained sectoral, but the Alemanistas abandoned the goal that had been "the preparation of the people for the implementation of a workers' democracy and for the arrival of a socialist regime."<ref>quoted in Garrido, "Partido Revolucionario Institucial (PRI)", p. 1058.</ref> The party slogan was changed from the PRM's "[f]or a workers' democracy" (''Por una democracia de trabajadores'') to the PRI's "[d]emocracy and justice" (''Democracia y justicia'').

In practice after Cárdenas left office, the party became more centrist, and his more radical agrarian policies were abandoned.<ref>Garrido, "Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)", p. 1059.</ref> With Lombardo Toledano's replacement as leader of the CTM, labor under the CTM's [[Fidel Velázquez]] became even more closely identified with the party. The more radical left of the labor movement, under Vicente Lombardo Toledano, split from the PRI, the Partido Popular. Although the party gave voice to workers' demands, since it was outside the umbrella of the PRI and lost power and influence.<ref>Smith, "Mexico Since 1946", p. 343.</ref> The leadership of component unions became advocates of PRI policy at the expense of the rank and file in exchange for political backing from the party and financial benefits. These ''charro'' ("cowboy") unions turned out the labor vote at election time, a guaranteed base of support for the party. During prosperous years, CTM could argue for benefits of the rank-and-file, such as higher wages, networking to provide jobs for union loyalists, and job security. The principle of no-reelection did not apply to the CTM, so that the party loyalist Velázquez provided decades of continuity even as the presidency changed every six years.<ref>Preston and Dillon, ''Opening Mexico'', pp. 53–54.</ref>
 
The PRI won every presidential election from 1929 to 1982, by well over 70 percent of the vote{{snd}}margins that were usually obtained by massive electoral frauds. Toward the end of his term, the incumbent president, in consultation with party leaders, selected the PRI's candidate in the next election in a procedure known as "the tap of the finger" ({{langx|es|el dedazo}}), which was integral in the continued success of the PRI towards the end of the 20th century. In essence, given the PRI's overwhelming dominance, and its control of the electoral apparatus, the president chose his successor. The PRI's dominance was near-absolute at all other levels as well. It held an overwhelming majority in the [[Chamber of Deputies of Mexico|Chamber of Deputies]], as well as every seat in the [[Senate (Mexico)|Senate]] and every state governorship.

The political stability and economic prosperity in the late 1940s and the 1950s benefited the party, so that in general Mexicans did not object to the lack of real democracy.

===Mexican Miracle===
{{main|Mexican Miracle}}
[[File:Miguel Alemán Valdés.jpg|thumb|[[Miguel Alemán Valdés]] was the first civilian president following the Mexican Revolution and son of a revolutionary general.]]
Starting with the Alemán administration (1946–1952) until 1970, Mexico embarked on a sustained period of economic growth, dubbed the [[Mexican Miracle]], fueled by [[import substitution]] and low [[inflation]]. From 1940 to 1970 GDP increased sixfold while the population only doubled,<ref name="Crandall">{{cite book |last=Crandall |first=R. |year=2004 |chapter=Mexico's Domestic Economy |editor-first1=Russell |editor-last1=Crandall |editor-first2=Guadalupe |editor-last2=Paz |editor-first3=Riordan |editor-last3=Roett |title=Mexico's Democracy at Work: Political and Economic Dynamics |location=Boulder, Colorado |publisher=Lynne Reiner Publishers |isbn=978-1-58826-300-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mexicosdemocracy0000unse }}</ref> and [[Mexican peso|peso]]-[[United States dollar|dollar]] parity was maintained at a stable exchange rate.

[[Economic nationalist]] and [[protectionist]] policies implemented in the 1930s effectively closed off Mexico to foreign trade and speculation, so that the economy was fueled primarily by state investment and businesses were heavily reliant on government contracts. As a result of these policies, Mexico's capitalist impulses were channeled into massive industrial development and [[social welfare programs]], which helped to urbanize the mostly-agrarian country, funded generous welfare subsidies for the working class, and fueled considerable advances in communication and transportation infrastructure. This period of commercial growth created a significant urban [[middle class]] of [[white-collar worker|white-collar]] bureaucrats and office workers, and allowed high-ranking PRI officials to steal ([[graft (politics)|graft]]) large personal fortunes through their control over state-funded programs. State monopoly over key industries like electricity and telecommunication allowed a small clique of businessmen to dominate their sectors of the economy by supplying government-owned companies with goods and commodities.

A major impact of Mexico's economic growth was urban population growth, transforming the country from a largely rural one to urban. The middle class grew substantially. The overall population of Mexico grew substantially with a greater proportion being under the age of 16. These factors combined to decrease the pull of the past. The policies promoting industrial growth helped fuel the growth of Mexico's north as a center of economic dynamism, with the city of Monterrey becoming Mexico's second-largest.<ref>Smith, Peter H. "Mexico Since 1946", in Bethell, Leslie (ed.), ''Mexico Since Independence''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. pp. 329–332</ref>

The general economic prosperity served to legitimize PRI hegemony in the eyes of most Mexicans, and for decades the party faced no real opposition on any level of government. On the rare occasions when an opposition candidate, usually from the [[conservative]] [[National Action Party (Mexico)|National Action Party]], whose strength was in Mexico's north, garnered a majority of votes in an election, the PRI often used its control of local government to rig election results in its favor. Voter apathy was characteristic in this period, with low turnout in elections.<ref>Smith, "Mexico Since 1946", p. 334.</ref> The PRI co-opted criticism by incorporating sectors of society into its hierarchy. PRI-controlled [[labor unions]] ("''charro'' unions") maintained a tight grip over the [[working classes]]; the PRI held rural farmers in check through its control of the ''[[ejidos]]'' (state-owned plots of land that peasants could farm but not own), and generous financial support of universities and the arts ensured that most [[intellectuals]] rarely challenged the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. In this way, PRI rule was supported by a broad national consensus that held firm for decades, even as polarizing forces gradually worked to divide the nation in preparation for the crises of the 1970s and 1980s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Preston |first1=Julia |last2=Dillon |first2=Samuel |title=Opening Mexico: The Making Of A Democracy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rT4WB2RM3l8C&pg=PA257|year= 2005 |publisher=Macmillan |pages=54–184 |isbn=978-0-374-52964-2}}</ref> The consensus specifically held that Mexico would be capitalist in its economic model; that the masses of workers and peasants would be kept in check{{snd}}as separate units and not allowed to merge into a single sector that would have too much strength; that the state and the party would be the agent for this control; and that the state and private entrepreneurs would compete in the mixed economy.<ref>Smith, "Mexico Since 1946" pp. 334–335</ref> So long as there was general prosperity, the system was stable economically and politically. Political balance meant that sectors had a voice within the party, but the party and the state were the arbiters of the system. Those supporting the system received material rewards that the state distributed. In this period, there was a continuing rapprochement with the United States, which built on their alliance in World War II. Although there was rhetoric about economic nationalism and defense of Mexican sovereignty, there was broad-based cooperation between the two countries.<ref>Smith, "Mexico Since 1946" pp. 336–337.</ref>

Cracks appeared in the system. There was significant labor unrest with strikes by railway workers, electricians, and even medical doctors that were brutally suppressed. Culturally the mood was changing as well, with [[Carlos Fuentes]] publishing ''[[The Death of Artemio Cruz]]'' (''La Muerte de Artemio Cruz'') in 1962, metaphorically the death of the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. The fictional Cruz had been a revolutionary soldier, corrupt politician, and businessman, now on his deathbed. Considered a landmark in Latin American literature, it highlighted aspects of Mexican history and its political system.<ref>Castañeda, V. Émilio, "'The Death of Artemio Cruz': The False Gods and the Death of Mexico". ''The Centennial Review'', vol. 30, no. 2, 1986, pp. 139–147. {{JSTOR|23738707}} accessed 10 April 2019.</ref>

===Attempts at party reform===
[[File:Carlos Madrazo.jpg|thumb|[[Carlos A. Madrazo]], a [[reformist]] PRI politician]]
When Alemán became president in 1946, the PRI had begun experiments in internal primaries, but Alemán cracked down on this democratic opening and had congress pass a law against parties holding primaries. Revolutionary general [[:es:Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada|Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada]], president of the party, had been in favor of primaries, but Alemán's viewpoint prevailed and PRI candidates were chosen in closed party assemblies. Sánchez was replaced as titular head of the party, and the president of the republic remained firmly in control.<ref>Smith, "Mexico Since 1946", p. 344.</ref>

During the early presidency of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, [[Carlos A. Madrazo]] was appointed president of the party and undertook serious reforms in 1964–65. PRI legislators were attempting to negate the principle of no-reelection for members of congress, which many of supported. Madrazo went further in reform attempts, seeking to democratize the electoral process for municipal candidates, which sectoral leaders and local PRI bossed opposed because it would undermine their hold on local elections. It was implemented in just seven states. Madrazo was forced to resign.<ref name="auto1">Garrido, "Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)", p. 1060.</ref> Madrazo died in [[Mexicana Flight 704|an airplane crash]] in 1969, which at the time was considered suspicious.<ref>Sherman, John. "The Mexican 'Miracle' and Its Collapse" in ''The Oxford History of Mexico'', Michael Meyer and William Beezley. New York: Oxford University Press 2000, p. 598</ref>

Only in 2000 did the PRI choose its presidential candidate through a primary, but its candidate [[Francisco Labastida]] lost that election.

===Political impact of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre===
{{main|Tlatelolco massacre}}
The improvement of the economy had a disparate impact in different social sectors and discontent started growing within the middle class as well as the popular classes. The doctors' strike in 1965 was a manifestation of middle-class discontent. Seeking better wages and workplace conditions, doctors demanded redress from the government. Rather than give into such demands, President Díaz Ordaz sent in riot troops to suppress the strike with brute force and arrest leaders. Two hundred doctors were fired.<ref>Smith, "Mexico Since 1946" p. 359.</ref> Díaz Ordaz's hard line on this strike by a sector of the middle class presaged even harsher suppression during the summer of 1968.

With the choice of capital for the venue for the [[1968 Mexico City Olympic Games]] slated for October, the government poured huge resources into preparing facilities. Mexico wanted to showcase its economic achievements and sought the international focus on the country. Maintaining an image of a prosperous and well-ordered Mexico was important for the Mexican government. In a relatively low-level conflict in late July 1968 between young people in Mexico City, the ''Granadero'' riot police used violence to tamp down the incident. However, the crackdown had the opposite effect, with students at the [[National Autonomous University of Mexico|National University]] (UNAM) and the [[National Polytechnic Institute]] (IPN) putting aside their traditional rivalries and joining together in protest in the [[Mexican Movement of 1968|Mexican Student Movement]].

[[File:Exèrcit al Zócalo-28 d'agost.jpg|thumb|Armored cars in the Zócalo, summer 1968]]
They protested lack of democracy and social justice in Mexico. Middle-class university students had largely been apolitical up until this point. President [[Gustavo Díaz Ordaz]] (1964–1970) ordered the army to occupy the university to suppress the mobilization and minimize the disruption of the Olympic Games. Orderly large-scale protests in downtown Mexico City showed the discontent of students and their largely middle-class supporters.<ref>Sherman, "The Mexican 'Miracle' and its Collapse", pp. 598–602</ref> As the opening ceremonies of the Olympics approached, the government sought help from the United States in dealing with the protests. Unaccustomed to this type of protest, the Mexican government made an unusual move by asking the United States for assistance, through [[CIA cryptonym#Known cryptonyms|LITEMPO]], a spy-program to inform the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) of the US to obtain information from Mexico. The CIA responded by sending military radios, weapons and ammunition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB99/ |title=The Tlatelolco Massacre |agency=National Security Archive |first=Kate |last=Doyle |date=10 October 2003}}</ref> The LITEMPO had previously provided the Díaz Ordaz government with 1,000 rounds of [[.223 Remington]] ammunition in 1963.<ref name="universal-litempo">{{cite news |url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/21075.html |title=Documents link past presidents to CIA |newspaper=El Universal |date=20 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123035133/http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/21075.html |archive-date=23 January 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

After weeks of huge and largely peaceful demonstrations in Mexico City in August and September by students and middle-class Mexicans, the government cracked down on 2 October, with army and special tactical units opening fire on a relatively small demonstration in Tlatelolco, a section of the metropolis. The aggressive [[Tlatelolco massacre#Assault and massacre|military response]] led to 300-400 dead, over 1,000 wounded, and more than 1,000 arrested protestors, although precise numbers are in dispute. Despite that the Olympics went forward on schedule, with the president of the Olympic Committee declaring that the protests were against the Mexican government and not the Olympics themselves, so the games proceeded.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/2/newsid_3548000/3548680.stm |title=1968: Student riots threaten Mexico Olympics |website=[[BBC News]] |date=2 October 1968}}</ref>

Political life in Mexico was changed that day. 2 October 1968, the date of what is known as the Tlatelolco massacre, is a turning point in Mexican history. That date "marks a psychological departure in which Mexicans – particularly urban, well-educated citizens, intellectuals, and even government officials themselves – began to question the efficiency and morality of an authoritarian state that required violence against middle-class students to maintain its position of authority and legitimacy to govern."<ref>Camp, Roderic Ai. "The Time of the Technocrats and Deconstruction of the Revolution" in ''The Oxford History of Mexico'', Michael Meyer and William Beezley, eds. New York: Oxford University Press 2000, pp. 610–611</ref> Intellectuals were alienated from the regime, after decades of cooperation with the government and receiving benefits for that service. The poet and essayist [[Octavio Paz]], who would later win the Nobel Prize in Literature, resigned as Mexican Ambassador to India. Novelist [[Carlos Fuentes]] denounced the repression.<ref>Smith, "Mexico Since 1946", p. 361</ref><ref>Young, Dolly J. "Mexican Literary Reactions to Tlatelolco 1968". ''Latin American Research Review'', 20, no 2. (1985), 71–85</ref>

Díaz Ordaz chose [[Luis Echeverría]] as the PRI candidate in the 1970 election. As the Minister of the Interior, Echeverría was operationally responsible for the Tlatelolco massacre.<ref>Schmidt, Samuel. "Luis Echeverría" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico''. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 427.</ref>

=== Economic crisis of the 1970s ===
{{see also|Economic history of Mexico#Deterioration in the 1970s}}
By the early 1970s, fundamental issues were emerging in the industrial and agricultural sectors of Mexico's economy. Regional underdevelopment, technological shortages, lack of foreign competition, and uneven distribution of wealth led to chronic underproduction of [[investment goods|investment]] and [[capital goods]], putting the long-term future of Mexican industry in doubt. Meanwhile, ubiquitous poverty combined with a dearth of agricultural investment and infrastructure caused continuous migration from rural to urban areas; in 1971, Mexican agriculture was in such a state that the country had become a net importer of food. Overvaluation of the peso led to a decline in the [[Tourism in Mexico|tourism]] industry (which had previously compensated for failures in industry and agriculture) meant that by the early 1970s, the economy had begun to falter, and they believed the only sure source of capital was external borrowing.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=Henry |title=The Mexican Foreign Debt and the Sexennial Transition from López Portillo to de la Madrid |journal=Mexican Studies |date=Summer 1985 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=227–285|doi=10.2307/1052037 |jstor=1052037 }}</ref>

Díaz Ordaz chose his [[Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)|government secretary]], [[Luis Echeverría]], to succeed him as president. Echeverría's administration (1970–76) increased social spending, through external debt, at a time when oil production and prices were surging. However, the growth of the economy came accompanied by inflation and then by a plummeting of oil prices and increases in interest rates. Investment started fleeing the country and the peso became overvalued,{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} to prevent a devaluation and further fleeing of investments, the [[Bank of Mexico]] borrowed 360 million dollars from the [[Federal Reserve]] with the promise of stabilizing the economy. External debt reached the level of $25 billion.<ref name="prelude">{{cite web |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB115/index.htm |title=Prelude to Disaster: José López Portillo and the Crash of 1976 | agency=National Security Archive |first=Kate |last=Doyle |date=14 March 2004}}</ref> Unable to contain the fleeing of dollars, Echeverría allowed the peso to float for the first time on 31 August 1976, then again later and the peso lost half of its value.<ref name="prelude"/> Echeverría designated [[José López Portillo]], his [[Secretary of Finance (Mexico)|Secretary of Finance]], as his successor for the term 1976–82, hoping that the new administration would have a tighter control on inflation and to preserve political unity.<ref name="prelude"/>

===Election of 1976, PRI runs unopposed===
{{see also|1976 Mexican general election}}
[[File:Jose Lopez Portillo new.jpg|thumb|[[José López Portillo]] in 1976]]
In the 1976 election, the PRI presidential candidate [[José López Portillo]] faced no real opposition, not even the National Action Party, which did not field a candidate in this election due to an ideological split. The lack of the appearance of democracy in the national elections undermined the legitimacy of the system. He proposed a reform called ''Ley Federal de Organizaciones Políticas y Procesos Electorales'' which gave official registry to opposition groups such as the [[Mexican Democratic Party]] and the [[Mexican Communist Party]]. This law also created positions in the lower chamber of congress for opposition parties through proportionality of votes, relative majority, uninominal and plurinominal. As a result, in 1979, the first independent (non-PRI) communist deputies were elected to the [[Congress of Mexico]].<ref name="inep-lopez portillo"/> Within the PRI, party president Carlos Sansores pushed for what he called "transparent democracy", but the effort went nowhere.<ref name="auto1"/>

Although López Portillo's term started with economic difficulties, the discovery of significant oil reserves in Mexico allowed him to borrow funds from foreign banks to be repaid in dollars against future revenues to allocate funds for social spending immediately. The discovery of significant oil sites in [[Tabasco]] and [[Campeche]] helped the economy to recover and López Portillo promised to "administer the abundance." The development of the promising oil industry was financed through external debt which reached 59 billion dollars<ref name="inep-lopez portillo"/> (compared to 25 billion<ref name="prelude"/> during Echeverría). Oil production increased from {{convert|94000|oilbbl/d}} at the beginning of his administration to {{convert|1500000|oilbbl/d}} at the end of his administration and Mexico became the fourth largest oil producer in the world.<ref name="inep-lopez portillo"/> The price for a barrel of oil also increased from three dollars in 1970 to 35 dollars in 1981.<ref name="inep-lopez portillo"/> The government attempted to develop heavy industry. However, waste became the rule as centralized resource allocation and distribution systems were accompanied by inefficiently located factories incurring high transport costs.

Mexico increased its international presence during López Portillo: in addition to becoming the world's fourth oil exporter, Mexico restarted relations with the post [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]-Spain in 1977, allowed [[Pope John Paul II]] to visit Mexico, welcomed U.S. president [[Jimmy Carter]] and broke relations with [[Somoza]] and supported the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front]] in its rebellion against the United States supported government. López Portillo also proposed the Plan Mundial de Energéticos in 1979 and summoned a [[North–South Summit|North-South World Summit]] in [[Cancún]] in 1981 to seek solutions to social problems.<ref name="inep-lopez portillo"/> In 1979, the PRI founded the [[COPPPAL]], the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean, an organization created "to defend democracy and all lawful political institutions and to support their development and improvement to strengthen the principle of self determination of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.copppal.org/que-es-la-copppal/ |title=¿Qué es la COPPPAL? |website=COPPPAL.org |language=es}}</ref>

Social programs were also created through the Alliance for Production, Global Development Plan, el COPLAMAR, Mexican Nourishing System, to attain independence on food, to reform public administration. López Portillo also created the secretaries of Programming and Budgeting, Agriculture and Water Resources, Industrial Support, Fisheries and Human Settlements and Public Works. Mexico then obtained high economic growth, a recuperation of salaries and an increase in spending on education and infrastructure. This way, social and regional inequalities started to diminish.<ref name="inep-lopez portillo"/> The attempted industrialization had not been responsive to consumer needs. Therefore, unprecedented urbanization and overcrowding followed and so, substandard pre-fabricated apartment blocs had to be built in large cities.

All this prosperity ended when the [[1980s oil glut|over-supply of oil]] in early 1982 caused oil prices to plummet and severely damaged the national economy. Interest rates skyrocketed in 1981 and external debt reached 86 billion dollars and exchange rates went from 26 to 70 pesos per dollar and inflation of 100%. This situation became so desperate that Lopez Portillo ordered the suspension on payments of external debt and the nationalization of the banking industry in 1982 consistent with the Socialist goals of the PRI. [[Capital flight|Capital fled]] Mexico at a rate never seen before in history. The Mexican government provided subsidies to staple food products and rail travel; this diminished the consequences of the crises on the populace. Job growth stagnated and millions of people migrated North to escape the economic stagnation. López Portillo's reputation plummeted and his character became the butt of jokes from the press.<ref name="inep-lopez portillo"/> In his last presidential address on 1 September 1982, he nationalized foreign banks. During his campaign, López Portillo promised to defend the peso "como un perro" ("like a dog"),<ref name="inep-lopez portillo">{{cite web |url=http://www.memoriapoliticademexico.org/Biografias/LPP20.html |title=Biography of José López Portillo |website=Memoria Política de México}}</ref> López Portillo refused to devalue the currency<ref name="prelude"/> saying "The president who devalues, devalues himself."<ref name="inep-lopez portillo"/>

===First of the technocratic presidents, 1982===
{{see also|1982 Mexican general election}}
[[File:Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, Antonio Toledo Corro, (18125823332) (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Miguel de la Madrid]] in 1982]]
When López Portillo left office in December 1982, the economy was in shambles. He designated [[Miguel de la Madrid]] as the PRI candidate, the first of a series of economists to rule the country, a [[Technocracy (bureaucratic)|technocrat]] who turned his back on populist policies to implement [[neoliberalism|neoliberal]] reforms, causing the number of state-owned industries to decline from 1155 to a mere 412. After the 1982 default, crisis lenders were unwilling to loan Mexico and this resulted in currency devaluations to finance spending. [[1985 Mexico City earthquake|An earthquake in September 1985]], in which his administration was criticised for its slow and clumsy reaction, added more woe to the problems. As a result of the crisis, black markets supplied by goods stolen from the public sector appeared. Galloping inflation continued to plague the country, hitting a record high in 1987 at 159%.

==Transition to multi-party system: 1988–2000==
===Left-wing splits from the PRI===
{{see also|1988 Mexican general election}}
[[File:Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano.jpg|thumb|left|175px|[[Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas]], seen here in 2002, split from the PRI, running unsuccessfully for president in 1988, 1994 and 2000]]
In 1986, [[Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas]] (former [[Governor of Michoacán]] and son of the former president of Mexico [[Lázaro Cárdenas]]) formed the "Democratic Current" (Spanish: ''Corriente Democrática'') of the PRI, which criticized the federal government for reducing spending on social programs to increase payments on foreign debt. The members of the Democratic Current were expelled from the party and formed the [[National Democratic Front (Mexico)|National Democratic Front]] (FDN, Spanish: ''Frente Democrático Nacional'') in 1987. The following year, the FDN elected Cárdenas as presidential candidate for the [[1988 Mexican general election|1988 presidential election]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cuauhtemoc-Cardenas-Solorzano |title=Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> which was won by [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]], obtaining 50.89% of the votes (according to official figures) versus 32% of Cárdenas. The official results were delayed, with the Secretary of the Interior (until then, the organizer of elections) blaming it on a computer system failure. Cárdenas claimed to have won and claimed such computer failure was caused by a manipulation of the system to count votes. [[Manuel Clouthier]] of the [[National Action Party (Mexico)|National Action Party]] (PAN, {{langx|es|Partido Acción Nacional}}) also claimed to have won, although not as vocally.

[[Miguel de la Madrid]], Mexico's president at the time of the 1988 election, admitted in 2004 that, on the evening of the election, he received news that Cárdenas was going to win by a majority, and that he and others rigged the election as a result.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/world/ex-president-in-mexico-casts-new-light-on-rigged-1988-election.html |work=The New York Times |first=Ginger |last=Thompson |title=Ex-President in Mexico Casts New Light on Rigged 1988 Election |date=9 March 2004}}</ref>

Clouthier, Cárdenas and [[Rosario Ibarra de Piedra]] then complained before the building of the [[Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)|Secretary of the Interior]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/07/18/index.php?section=politica&article=022a2pol |title=1988 |first=Marco |last=Rascón |newspaper=[[La Jornada]] |language=es |date=18 July 2006}}</ref> Clouthier and his followers then set up other protests, among them one at the [[Chamber of Deputies of Mexico|Chamber of Deputies]], demanding that the electoral packages be opened. In 1989, Clouthier presented an ''alternative cabinet'' (a [[Great Britain|British]] style [[Shadow Cabinet]]) with [[Diego Fernández de Cevallos]], Jesús González Schmal, [[Fernando Canales Clariond]], Francisco Villarreal Torres, Rogelio Sada Zambrano, María Elena Álvarez Bernal, Moisés Canales, [[Vicente Fox]], [[Carlos Castillo Peraza]] and [[Luis Felipe Bravo Mena]] as cabinet members and Clouthier as cabinet coordinator. The purpose of this cabinet was to vigilate the actions of the government. Clouthier died next October in an accident with Javier Calvo, a federal deputy. The accident has been claimed by the PAN as a state assassination since then.<ref name="inep-clouther">{{cite web |url=http://www.memoriapoliticademexico.org/Biografias/CMJ34.html |title=Biography of Manuel Clouthier |website=Memoria Política de México}}</ref> That same year, the PRI lost its first state government with the election of [[Ernesto Ruffo Appel]] as [[governor of Baja California]].

===Attempt at internal reform, 1990s===
[[Luis Donaldo Colosio]], at the time party president, attempted a "democratic experiment" to open up the party at the level of candidates for gubernatorial and municipal elections, which would bar precandidates from campaigning for the nomination, but without a democratic tradition within the party and as basic a fact as the lack of lists of party membership meant the experiment failed. [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]] resisted any attempts to reform the party. At the end of 1994, after the assassination of Colosio who had been designated the PRI presidential candidate, the party did move toward greater internal democracy.<ref>Garrido, "Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI)", p. 1061.</ref>

===Political turmoil and decline of power===
{{see also|1994 Mexican general election}}
In 1990, [[Peruvian]] writer [[Mario Vargas Llosa]] called the government under the PRI ''la dictadura perfecta'' ("the perfect dictatorship").<ref name="elpais.com">{{cite news |url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/AZUA/_FELIX_DE/TRIAS/_EUGENIO/VARGAS_LLOSA/_MARIO/MARSE/_JUAN_/ESCRITOR/PAZ/_OCTAVIO/SARAMAGO/elpepicul/19900901elpepicul_1/Tes |title=Vargas Llosa: "México es la dictadura perfecta" |newspaper=El País |language=es |date=1 September 1990}}</ref> Despite that perception, a major blow came with the assassination of the 1994 PRI candidate [[Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta|Luis Donaldo Colosio]], the first high-level assassination since that of president-elect [[Alvaro Obregón]] in 1928, which led to Calles forming the PRN to deal with the political vacuum. President [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]] designated Colosio's campaign director, [[Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León]], as the new PRI candidate, who was subsequently elected. The 1994 elections were the first Mexican presidential election monitored by international observers.

A number of factors, including the [[1994 economic crisis in Mexico]], caused the PRI to lose its absolute majority in both chambers of the [[Congress of Mexico|federal congress]] for the first time in 1997.

After several decades in power the PRI had become a symbol of [[Corruption in Mexico|corruption]] and electoral fraud.<ref name="darkpast"/> The conservative [[National Action Party (Mexico)|National Action Party]] (PAN) became a stronger party after 1976 when it obtained the support from businessmen after recurring economic crises.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Poitras |first1=Guy |title=The Rise of the Pan |journal=Law and Business Review of the Americas |date=27 October 2017 |volume=9 |issue=2 |page=272 |url=https://scholar.smu.edu/lbra/vol9/iss2/5 |access-date=19 November 2020}}</ref> Consequently, the PRI's [[left (politics)|left]] wing separated and formed its own party, the [[Party of the Democratic Revolution]] (PRD) in 1989.

Critics claim [[electoral fraud]], with [[voter suppression]] and violence, was used when the [[political machine]] did not work and elections were just a ritual to simulate the appearance of a democracy. However, the three major parties now make the same claim against each other (PRD against [[Vicente Fox]]'s PAN and PAN vs. [[Andrés Manuel López Obrador|López Obrador]]'s PRD, and the PRI against the PAN at the local level and local elections such as the [[2007 Yucatán state election]]).{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} Two other PRI presidents [[Miguel de la Madrid]] and [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]] privatized many outmoded industries, including banks and businesses, entered the [[General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade]] and also negotiated the [[North American Free Trade Agreement]].

In the final decades of the PRI regime, the connections between the party and [[drug cartel]]s became more evident, as the drug trade saw a massive increase, which worsened corruption in the party and at all spheres of Government. In 1984, journalist [[Manuel Buendía]] was murdered by agents of the [[Federal Security Directorate]] (Buendía had been investigating possible ties between Drug cartels, the CIA and the FSD itself).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Becerril |first1=Andres |title=El de Buendía, el primer crimen de narcopolítica |url=http://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2014/05/30/962316 |access-date=10 July 2018 |agency=Excelsior}}</ref> In 1997, general [[José de Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo|Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo]], who had been appointed by president [[Ernesto Zedillo]] as head of the Instituto Nacional de Combate a las Drogas, was arrested after it was discovered that he had been collaborating with the [[Juárez Cartel]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/10/27/mexico.drugs.ap/index.html |title=Cartel worker reportedly spied on DEA in Mexico |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=29 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081029235947/http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/10/27/mexico.drugs.ap/index.html |archive-date=29 October 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In another infamous incident, [[Mario Villanueva]], a member of the PRI and outgoing governor of [[Quintana Roo]], was accused in 1999 of drug trafficking. When the evidence against him became strong enough to warrant an arrest, he disappeared from the public eye two days before the end of his term, being absent at the ceremony at which he was to hand the office over to his elected successor, [[Joaquín Hendricks Díaz]]. Villanueva remained a fugitive from justice for many months, until being captured and arrested in 2001.<ref name=PGR1>[http://www.pgr.gob.mx/prensa/2007/press07/Ago/pr40007.shtm Mario Villanueva Madrid Case] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110405233534/http://www.pgr.gob.mx/prensa/2007/press07/Ago/pr40007.shtm |date=5 April 2011}}</ref>

==First time in opposition: 2000–2012==
===Loss of the presidency of Mexico===
{{see also|2000 Mexican general election}}
Prior to the 2000 general elections, the PRI held its first primaries to elect the party's presidential candidate. The primary candidates, nicknamed "los cuatro fantásticos" (Spanish for ''The Fantastic Four''), were:<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.elmundo.es/1999/11/04/internacional/04N0052.html |title=Los 'cuatro fantásticos' del PRI, listos para las urnas |newspaper=[[El Mundo (Spain)|El Mundo]] |language=es |date=4 November 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123034914/http://www.elmundo.es/1999/11/04/internacional/04N0052.html |archive-date=23 January 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[Francisco Labastida Ochoa]] (former [[governor of Sinaloa]] and [[Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)|Secretary of the Interior]])
* [[Roberto Madrazo Pintado]] (former [[governor of Tabasco]])
* [[Manuel Bartlett]] (former [[governor of Puebla]] and Secretary of the Interior)
* [[Humberto Roque Villanueva]]

The favorites in the primaries were Labastida and Madrazo, and the latter initiated a campaign against the first, perceived as Zedillo's candidate since many former secretaries of the interior were chosen as candidates by the president. His campaign, produced by prominent publicist [[Carlos Alazraki]], had the motto "Dale un Madrazo al dedazo" or "Give a Madrazo to the ''dedazo''" with "madrazo" being an offensive slang term for a "strike" and "dedazo" a slang used to describe the unilaterally choosing of candidates by the president (literally "finger-strike").

The growth of the PAN and PRD parties culminated in 2000, when the PAN won the presidency, and again in 2006 (won this time by the PAN with a small margin over the PRD.) Many prominent members of the PAN ([[Manuel Clouthier]],<ref name="inep-clouther"/> [[Addy Joaquín Coldwell]] and [[Demetrio Sodi]]), most of the PRD (most notably all three [[Head of Government of the Federal District|Mexico City mayor]]s [[Andrés Manuel López Obrador]], [[Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas]] and [[Marcelo Ebrard]]), the PVEM ([[Jorge González Torres]]) and [[New Alliance Party (Mexico)|New Alliance]] ([[Roberto Campa]]) were once members of the PRI, including many presidential candidates from the opposition (Clouthier, López Obrador, Cárdenas, González Torres, Campa and [[Porfirio Muñoz Ledo]], among many others).

In the [[2000 Mexican general election|presidential elections]] of 2 July 2000, its candidate [[Francisco Labastida Ochoa]] was defeated by [[Vicente Fox]], after getting only 36.1% of the popular vote. It was to be the first Presidential electoral defeat of the PRI. In the [[2000 Mexican general election|senatorial elections]] of the same date, the party won with 38.1%, or 33 out of 128 seats in the [[Senate of Mexico]].

===As an opposition party===
After much restructuring, the party was able to make a recovery, winning the greatest number of seats (5% short of a true majority) in Congress in 2003: at these [[2003 Mexican elections|elections]], the party won 224 out of 500 seats in the [[Chamber of Deputies of Mexico|Chamber of Deputies]], remaining as the largest single party in both the [[Chamber of Deputies of Mexico|Chamber of Deputies]] and [[Senate of Mexico|Senate]]. In the [[Mexican Federal District|Federal District]] the PRI obtained only one borough mayorship ''(jefe delegacional)'' out of 16, and no [[Plurality voting system|first-past-the-post]] members of the city assembly. The PRI recouped some significant losses on the state level (most notably, the [[governor]]ship of former PAN stronghold [[Nuevo León]]). On 6 August 2004, in two closely contested elections in [[Oaxaca]] and [[Tijuana]], PRI candidates [[Ulises Ruiz Ortiz]] and [[Jorge Hank Rhon]] won the races for the governorship and [[presidente municipal|municipal presidency]] respectively. The PAN had held control of the president's office of the [[municipio (Mexico)|municipality]] of Tijuana for 15 years. Six out of eight gubernatorial elections held during 2005 were won by the PRI: [[Quintana Roo]], [[Hidalgo (Mexico)|Hidalgo]], [[Colima]], [[Estado de México]], [[Nayarit]], and [[Coahuila]]. The PRI then controlled the states on the country's northern border with the US except for [[Baja California]].

Later that year [[Roberto Madrazo]], [[president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party|president of the PRI]], left his post to seek a nomination as the party's candidate in the 2006 presidential election. According to the statutes, the presidency of the party would then go to [[Elba Esther Gordillo]] as party secretary. The rivalry between Madrazo and Gordillo caused [[Mariano Palacios Alcocer]] instead to become president of the party. After what was perceived an imposition of Madrazo as candidate a group was formed called ''Unidad Democrática'' (Spanish: "Democratic Unity"), although nicknamed ''Todos Unidos Contra Madrazo'' (Spanish: "Everybody United Against Madrazo" or "TUCOM")<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/07/25/014n1pol.php |title=Integrantes del Tucom, de políticos pobres a precandidatos que gastan millones |newspaper=La Jornada |date=25 July 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629123853/http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/07/25/014n1pol.php |language=es |archive-date=29 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> which was formed by governors and former state governors:
* [[Arturo Montiel]] (former [[governor of the State of Mexico]])
* [[Enrique Jackson]] (federal senator)
* [[Tomás Yarrington]] ([[governor of Tamaulipas]])
* [[Enrique Martínez y Martínez|Enrique Martínez]] (former [[governor of Coahuila]])
* [[Manuel Ángel Núñez Soto|Manuel Núñez]] ([[governor of Hidalgo]])

Montiel won the right to run against Madrazo for the candidacy but withdrew when it was made public that he and his French wife owned large properties in Europe.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/311548.html |title=Montiel deja vía libre a Madrazo |newspaper=[[El Universal (Mexico City)|El Universal]] |language=es |date=21 October 2005}}</ref> Madrazo and Everardo Moreno contended in the primaries which was won by the first.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-14-fg-briefs14.3-story.html |title=Madrazo Set to Win PRI Presidential Primary |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=14 November 2005}}</ref> Madrazo then represented the PRI and the [[Ecologist Green Party of Mexico]] (PVEM) in the [[Alliance for Mexico]] coalition.

During his campaign Madrazo declared that the PRI and PRD were "first cousins"; to this Emilio Chuayffet Chemor responded that if that were the case then [[Andrés Manuel López Obrador]] (AMLO), candidate of the PRD, would also be a first cousin and he might win the election.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/03/15/index.php?section=politica&article=010n1pol |title=AMLO, 'primo hermano': Chuayffet |newspaper=La Jornada |language=es |date=15 March 2006}}</ref>

AMLO was by then the favorite in the polls, with many followers within the PRI. Madrazo, second at the polls, then released TV spots against AMLO with little success; his campaign was managed again by Alazraki. [[Felipe Calderón]] of the ruling PAN ran a more successful campaign, later surpassing Madrazo as the second favorite. Gordillo, also the teachers' union leader, resentful against Madrazo, helped a group of teachers constitute the [[New Alliance Party (Mexico)|New Alliance Party]]. Divisions within the party and a successful campaign of the PAN candidate caused Madrazo to fall to third place. The winner, as announced by the [[Federal Electoral Institute]] and evaluated by the Mexican Election Tribunal amidst a controversy, was Calderón. On 20 November that year, a group of young PRI politicians launched a movement that was set to reform and revolutionize the party.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elmovimiento.org |title=El Movimiento |website=elmovimiento.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012033008/http://www.elmovimiento.org/ |archive-date=12 October 2007 |access-date=24 January 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> The PRI candidate failed to win a single state in the 2006 presidential election.

In the [[2006 Mexican elections|2006 legislative elections]] the party won 106 out of 500 seats in the [[Chamber of Deputies of Mexico|Chamber of Deputies]] and 35 out of 128 [[Senate of Mexico|Senators]].

The PRI regained the governorship of Yucatán in 2007, and was the party with the most mayorships and state congresspeople in the elections in Yucatán (tying with the PAN in the number of deputies), Chihuahua, Durango, Aguascalientes, Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca. The PRI obtained the most mayorships in Zacatecas and the second-most deputies in the congressional elections of Zacatecas and Baja California.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/454772.html |title=Concluye cómputo municipal y distrital en Chiapas |newspaper=El Universal |date=12 October 2007 |language=es}}</ref>

In 2009, the PRI regained plurality control of the Mexican congress; this was the first time the congress had fallen to PRI control since PAN's victory in 2000.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/06/mexico.elections/ |publisher=CNN |date=7 July 2009 |title=Mexico's ruling party loses midterm elections |access-date=5 May 2010}}</ref>

The PRI benefited from both the growing unpopularity of Felipe Calderón's administration as president due to the notorious increase in the homicide rate as a result of his [[Mexican Drug War|war on drugs]], as well as internal conflicts in the left-wing [[Partido de la Revolucion Democratica]] (PRD) that deteriorated its image.

==Return to power: 2012–2018==
===Return of the PRI===
{{see also|2012 Mexican general election}}
[[File:Presidencia_2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Enrique Peña Nieto's [[investiture]] as president of Mexico]]
Under [[Enrique Peña Nieto]] and after ruling for most of the past century in Mexico, the PRI returned to the presidency as it had brought hopes to those who gave the PRI another chance and fear to those who worried about the old PRI tactics of making deals with the cartels in exchange for relative peace.<ref>{{cite news |last=Sanchez |first=Raf |title=Mexico elections: Enrique Peña Nieto pledges a new era |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/9370859/Mexico-elections-Enrique-Pena-Nieto-pledges-a-new-era.html |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=2 July 2012 |location=London |access-date=3 July 2012}}</ref> According to an article published by ''[[The Economist]]'' on 23 June 2012, part of the reason why Peña Nieto and the PRI were voted back to the presidency after a 12-year struggle lay in the disappointment of PAN rule.<ref name=backtofuture>{{cite news |title=Mexico's presidential election: Back to the future |url=https://www.economist.com/leaders/2012/06/23/back-to-the-future |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=23 June 2012 |access-date=3 July 2012}}</ref> Buffeted by China's economic growth and the economic recession in the United States, the annual growth of Mexico's economy between 2000 and 2012 was 1.8%. Poverty grew worse, and without a ruling majority in Congress, the PAN presidents were unable to pass structural reforms, leaving monopolies and Mexico's educational system unchanged.<ref name=backtofuture/> In 2006, Felipe Calderón chose to make the [[Mexican Drug War|battle against organized crime]] the centerpiece of his presidency. Nonetheless, with over 60,000 dead and a lack of any real progress, Mexican citizens became tired of a fight they had first supported, and not by majority.<ref name=backtofuture/> ''The Economist'' alleged that these signs were "not as bad as they look", since Mexico was more democratic, it contained a competitive export market, had a well-run economy despite the crisis, and there were tentative signs that the violence in the country may be plummeting. But if voters wanted the PRI back, ''The Economist'' claimed, it was because "the alternatives [were] weak".<ref name=backtofuture/> The magazine also alleged that Mexico's preferences should have gone [[left-wing politics|left-wing]], but the candidate that represented that movement – [[Andrés Manuel López Obrador]] – engaged in "disgraceful behaviour". The conservative candidate, [[Josefina Vázquez Mota]], was deemed worthy but was considered by ''The Economist'' to have carried out a "shambolic campaign". Thus, Peña Nieto won by default, having been perceived (per the magazine) as the "least bad choice" for reform in Mexico.<ref name=backtofuture/>

====Aftermath of the return of the PRI====
When the PRI lost the presidency in 2000, few expected that the "perfect dictatorship", a description coined by [[Mario Vargas Llosa]], would return again in only 12 years.<ref name=return>{{cite news |title=Mexico's election: The PRI is back |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2012/07/mexicos-election |access-date=7 July 2012 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=2 July 2012}}</ref> The [[Associated Press]] published an article in July 2012 noting that many immigrants living in the [[United States]] were worried about the PRI's return to power and that it could dissuade many from returning to their homeland.<ref name=immigrants/> The vast majority of the 400,000 voters outside of Mexico voted against Peña Nieto, and said they were "shocked" that the PRI – which largely convinced them to leave Mexico – had returned.<ref name=immigrants>{{cite web |last=Watson |first=Julie |title=Immigrants express shock at return of Mexico's PRI |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120702/us-mexico-elections-reaction/ |access-date=31 January 2017 |website=The Huffington Post |date=2 July 2012}}</ref> Voters who favored Peña Nieto, however, believed that the PRI "had changed" and that more jobs would be created under the new regime.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Castillo |first1=E. Eduardo |last2=Corcoran |first2=Katherine |title=Mexico Elections: PRI Could Return To Power With Pena Nieto As President |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/01/mexico-elections_n_1641049.html |newspaper=[[The Huffington Post]] |date=1 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140402053430/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/01/mexico-elections_n_1641049.html |archive-date=2 April 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Moreover, some U.S. officials were concerned that [[Security policy of Enrique Peña Nieto|Peña Nieto's security strategy]] meant the return to the old and corrupt practices of the PRI regime, where the government made deals with and overlooked the cartels in exchange for peace.<ref name=usconcern/> They worried that [[Mexican Drug War|Mexico's drug war]], which had already cost over 50,000 lives, would make Mexicans question on why they should "pay the price for a US drug habit".<ref name=usconcern/> Peña Nieto denied, however, that his party would tolerate corruption, and stated he would not make deals with the cartels.<ref name=usconcern>{{cite news |last=Carroll |first=Rory |title=US concerned Mexico's new president may go easy on drug cartels |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/02/usa-mexico-president-drugs-cartels |access-date=3 July 2012 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=2 July 2012 |location=London}}</ref> In spite of Peña's words, a poll from 20 September 2016, revealed that 83% of Mexican citizens perceived the PRI as the most corrupt political party in Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.milenio.com/politica/pri_percepcion_corrupcion-encuesta_corruptometro-milenio_noticias_0_814718855.html |title=PRI, el más corrupto según encuesta de percepción |work=Milenio |date=20 September 2016 |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>

The return of the PRI brought some perceived negative consequences, among them:
* Low levels of presidential approval and allegations of presidential corruption: The government of President [[Enrique Peña Nieto]] faced multiple scandals and allegations of corruption. Reforma, which has conducted polls of presidential approval since 1995, revealed that Peña Nieto had received the lowest presidential approval in modern history since it had begun polling on the subject in 1995; he had received a mere 12% approval rating. The second-lowest approval was for [[Ernesto Zedillo]] (1994-2000), also from the PRI. It also revealed that both presidents elected from the [[National Action Party (Mexico)|National Action Party (PAN)]], [[Vicente Fox]] (2000–2006) and Felipe Calderón (2006–2012), had higher presidential approvals than the PRI presidents.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/why-mexican-president-enrique-pe-nieto-so-unpopular-n640611 |title=Why Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is so unpopular |first=Erik |last=Ortiz |date=31 August 2016 |publisher=[[NBC News]] |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>
* PRI corrupt ex-governors declared criminals by the Mexican government: During Peña Nieto's government multiple members of the PRI political party were declared criminals by the Mexican government, which surprised the public given they were elected as PRI members and state governors within the Mexican government, among them Tomas Yarrington from [[Tamaulipas]] (along his predecessor [[Eugenio Hernández Flores]]), [[Javier Duarte]] from [[Veracruz]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-duarte-20170717-story.html |title=Former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state extradited from Guatemala to face corruption charges |first=Patrick J. |last=McDonnell |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref> [[César Duarte Jáquez]] from [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.dallasnews.com/news/mexico/2017/03/30/mexico-ex-gov-flees-texas-evade-corruption-allegations |title=Mexico: Ex-governor flees to Texas to evade corruption allegations |date=30 March 2017 |newspaper=[[The Dallas Morning News]] |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref> (no family relation between both Duarte), and [[Roberto Borge]] from [[Quintana Roo]], along their unknown multiple allies who enabled their corruption.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulo/nacion/seguridad/2017/06/5/pgr-e-interpol-capturan-roberto-borge-en-panama |title=PGR e Interpol capturan a Roberto Borge en Panamá |newspaper=[[El Universal (Mexico City)|El Universal]] |date=5 June 2017 |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref> All of them supported Peña Nieto during his presidential campaign.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2017/04/17/1158092 |title=Corrupción envuelve a 11 exgobernadores |date=17 April 2017 |newspaper=[[Excélsior]] |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/es/2017/04/19/mexico-gobernadores-corrupcion-impunidad-duarte/ |title=En México se acumulan los gobernadores corruptos, e impunes |first=Elisabeth |last=Malkin |language=es |date=19 April 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://regeneracion.mx/conoce-a-los-11-exgobernadores-mas-corruptos-de-mexico/ |title=Conoce a los 11 exgobernadores más corruptos de México |date=17 April 2017 |website=Regeneracion |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>
* State of Mexico allegations of electoral fraud (2017): The 2017 elections within the [[state of Mexico]] were highly controversial, with multiple media outlets feeling there was electoral fraud committed by the PRI. In November 2017, magazine ''[[Proceso (magazine)|Proceso]]'' published an article accusing the PRI of breaking at least 16 state laws during the elections, which were denounced 619 times. They said that all of them were broken in order to favor PRI candidate for governor [[Alfredo del Mazo Maza]] (who is the cousin of Enrique Peña Nieto and whom several of his relatives have also been governors of said entity). The article claims it has been the most corrupt election in modern Mexican history, and directly blames the PRI. Despite all the evidence, Alfredo del Mazo was declared winner of the election by the electoral tribunals, and served a term as governor.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.proceso.com.mx/511392/ni-libre-ni-autentica-la-eleccion-en-edomex-ni-fraude |title='Ni libre, ni auténtica', la elección en Edomex: Ni un Fraude Más |date=16 November 2017 |magazine=[[Proceso (magazine)|Proceso]] |access-date=6 April 2018 |archive-date=20 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120103400/http://www.proceso.com.mx/511392/ni-libre-ni-autentica-la-eleccion-en-edomex-ni-fraude |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Chamber of Deputies also suffered from controversies from members of the PRI:
* Law 3 of 3 Anticorruption controversy: In early 2016, a controversy arose when all the Senate disputes from the PRI, voted against the "Ley 3 de 3 (Law 3 of 3)", a law that would have obligated every politician to announce three items: a public patrimonial declaration, an interests declaration, and a fiscal declaration. A revised, less comprehensive version of the law was accepted but it does not oblige politicians to make the three items.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ley3de3.mx/es/ |title=Discusión en el senado |website=Ley 3de3 |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2016/06/15/aprueba-el-senado-version-light-de-la-ley-3-de-3 |title=Aprueba el Senado versión 'light' de la 'Ley 3 de 3' |newspaper=La Jornada |date=15 June 2016 |language=es}}</ref> While it was completely legal for the deputies from the PRI to vote against such a law, some news media outlets{{who|date=April 2022}} interpreted the votes against the promulgation of such law as the political party protecting itself from the findings that could surface if such declarations were to be made.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/nacional/ley-3de3-avanza-en-comisiones-del-senado-pan-vota-a-favor.html |title=Ley #3de3 avanza en comisiones del Senado; PAN vota a favor |newspaper=El Financiero |date=14 June 2016 |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://elinformantebcs.mx/nuevamente-el-pri-vota-en-contra-de-de-los-ciudadanos-pan-bcs/ |title=Nuevamente el PRI vota en contra de de los ciudadanos: PAN BCS |newspaper=El Informante – Baja California Sur |date=18 June 2016 |language=es}}</ref>
* In November 2017, Aristegui Noticias reported that "the PRI and their allies were seeking to approve the "Ley de Seguridad Interior (Law of Internal Security)". The Mexican [[CNDH|National Human Rights Commission (CNDH)]] had previously said that law violated [[human rights]], because it favors the discretional usage of the army forces. The CNDH said it "endangered citizens by giving a blank check to the army" and the president to order an attack towards any group of people they consider a danger without requiring an explanation. This could include people such as social activists.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/AristeguiOnline/status/936399552122380292 |title=Aristegui Noticias on Twitter |website=twitter.com |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://aristeguinoticias.com/3011/mexico/mas-poder-al-presidente-y-a-las-fuerzas-armadas-las-entranas-de-la-ley-de-seguridad-interior/ |title=Más poder al Presidente y a las Fuerzas Armadas: las entrañas de la Ley de Seguridad Interior |website=Aristegui Noticias.com |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>

==Second time in opposition: 2018–present==
{{see also|2018 Mexican general election}}
[[File:Gobernadores mexicanos (2024).png|thumb|390px|{{Legend|#009150|States governed by the PRI in 2024}}]]
On 27 November 2017, [[José Antonio Meade]] announced he would compete in the 2018 presidential election, representing the PRI. He was reported to have been handpicked directly by president Peña Nieto through the traditional and now controversial practice known as ''El Dedazo'' (literally, "the finger strike", evoking an image of the incumbent president directly pointing towards his successor).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/elecciones-2018/meade-es-el-dedazo-de-siempre-dice-barrales |title=Meade es el dedazo de siempre, dice Barrales |date=27 November 2017 |newspaper=El Universal |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sdpnoticias.com/nacional/2017/12/04/codigo-alfa-la-estrategia-del-dedazo-en-la-precandidatura-de-meade |title=Código Alfa: La estrategia del dedazo en la precandidatura de Meade |date=4 December 2017 |website=SDP Noticias.com |access-date=6 April 2018 |archive-date=28 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228000207/https://www.sdpnoticias.com/nacional/2017/12/04/codigo-alfa-la-estrategia-del-dedazo-en-la-precandidatura-de-meade |url-status=dead }}</ref>

There were concerns about the possibility of fraud in the presidential election following allegations of electoral fraud concerning the election of Enrique Peña Nieto's cousin [[Alfredo del Mazo Maza]] as governor of the [[state of Mexico]], in December 2017. The Mexican newspaper ''Regeneración'', which is officially linked to the [[National Regeneration Movement|MORENA]] party, warned about the possibility of the PRI committing an [[electoral fraud]]. Cited was the controversial law of internal security that the PRI senators approved as the means to diminish the protests towards such electoral fraud.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://regeneracion.mx/pri-prepara-un-fraude-electoral-en-2018-alertan-academicos-y-expertos/ |title=PRI prepara un fraude electoral en 2018, alertan académicos y expertos |date=25 December 2017 |website=Regeneracion.mx |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref> ''[[Bloomberg News]]'' also supported that possible outcome, with Tony Payan, director of the [[Houston]]'s Mexico Center at [[Rice University]]'s Baker Institute, suggesting that both vote buyouts and computer hackings were possible, citing the 1988 previous electoral fraud committed by the PRI. Bloomberg's article also suggested Meade could also receive unfair help from the over-budget amounts of money spent in publicity by incumbent president [[Enrique Peña Nieto]] (who also campaigned with the PRI).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-18/mexico-s-biggest-election-could-turn-dirty-it-s-happened-before |title=Mexico's Presidential Election Could Get Really Dirty |date=18 December 2017 |website=Bloomberg.com |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref> A December 2017 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported Peña Nieto spending about [[US$]]2 billion on publicity during his first five years as president, the largest publicity budget ever spent by a Mexican president. Additionally, the article noted the concerns of news journalists, 68 percent of whom claimed to not believe they had enough freedom of speech. To support the statement, the cited award-winning news reporter [[Carmen Aristegui]], who was controversially fired shortly after revealing the Mexican White House scandals concerning a conflict of interest regarding a house owned by Peña Nieto.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/es/2017/12/25/con-su-enorme-presupuesto-de-publicidad-el-gobierno-mexicano-controla-los-medios-de-comunicacion-pri-pena-nieto/ |title=Con su enorme presupuesto de publicidad, el gobierno mexicano controla los medios de comunicación |first=Azam |last=Ahmed |date=25 December 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times |language=es |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>

In April 2018, Forbes republished a British news program [[Channel 4 News]] story claiming the existence of proof of ties between the PRI and [[Cambridge Analytica]], which was previously implicated in Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, suggesting a "modus operandi" in Mexico similar to the one in the United States. The information indicated they worked together at least until January 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com.mx/cambridge-analytica-mexico-pri-enero-2018-channel-4-news/|title=Cambridge Analytica trabajó con el PRI: Channel 4 News|date=30 March 2018|website=Forbes México}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/opinion/javier-murillo/cambridge-analytica-sigan-la-ruta-del-dinero|title=Cambridge Analytica, sigan la ruta del dinero|first=Javier|last=Murillo|website=El Financier|date=6 April 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/03/22/inenglish/1521710735_571195.html|title=The distorted online networks of Mexico's election campaign|first1=Fernando|last1=Peinado|first2=Elvira|last2=Palomo|first3=Javier|last3=Galán|date=22 March 2018|work=El Pais}}</ref> An investigation was requested.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.proceso.com.mx/528182/exigen-al-inai-investigar-a-cambridge-analytica-facebook-y-desarrolladoras-de-apps-en-mexico|title=Exigen al INAI investigar a Cambridge Analytica, Facebook y desarrolladoras de Apps en México |date=2 April 2018|website=Proceso}}</ref> The PRI has denied ever contracting Cambridge Analytica.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/niega-pri-haber-contratado-a-cambridge-analytica/1229584|title=Niega PRI haber contratado a Cambridge Analytica|date=31 March 2018|website=Excélsior}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' acquired the 57-page proposal of Cambridge Analytica's outlining a strategy of collaboration to benefit the PRI by hurting MORENA's candidate López Obrador. The political party rejected Cambridge Analytica's offer but paid the firm to not help the other candidates.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/world/americas/mexico-election-cambridge-analytica.html|title=Mexico's Hardball Politics Get Even Harder as PRI Fights to Hold On to Power|first1=Azam|last1=Ahmed|first2=Danny|last2=Hakim|newspaper=The New York Times|date=24 June 2018}}</ref>

In the [[2018 Mexican general election|2018 general election]], as part of the [[Todos por México]] coalition, the PRI suffered a monumental legislative defeat, scoring the lowest number of seats in the party's history. Presidential candidate José Antonio Meade also only scored 16.4% of the votes, finishing in third place, while the party only managed to elect 42 deputies (down from 203 of 2015) and 14 senators (down from 61 in 2012). The PRI was also defeated in each of the nine elections for state governor; the [[National Regeneration Movement]] won four, PAN three, and the [[Social Encounter Party]] and [[Citizens' Movement (Mexico)|Citizens' Movement]] each with one.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/07/morena-logra-5-de-9-gubernaturas-pri-pierde/|title=El PRI se queda sin nada: Morena gana 5 gubernaturas y el PAN 3|date=2 July 2018|website=Animal Político}}</ref>

Amid the party's worsening electoral performance, it has attempted to redefine itself as a [[social democratic]] party<!--<ref>{{Cite web|title=PRI se perfila como un partido centroizquierda, progresista y socialdemócrata|url=https://buzos.com.mx/index.php/nota/index/10094|access-date=18 January 2022|website=buzos.com.mx}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=PRI se desmarca del neoliberalismo y el populismo; se define como socialdemócrata|url=https://www.milenio.com/politica/pri-realiza-asamblea-nacional-desmarca-neoliberalismo|access-date=18 January 2022|website=Milenio|language=es-MX}}</ref>--> since 2021.<ref>Artículo 1° de la [http://pri.org.mx/JuntosHacemosMas/Documentos/DeclaracionDePrincipios2013.pdf Declaración de Principios del PRI, 2013] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927052744/http://pri.org.mx/JuntosHacemosMas/Documentos/DeclaracionDePrincipios2013.pdf |date=27 September 2017 }}: " We are a nationalist party that is, proud of the ideological principles of the Mexican Revolution, promotes the modernization of Mexico with democracy and social justice. '''That is why we are part of the social-democratic current of contemporary political parties'''".</ref><ref name="Reina">{{Cite web |last=Reina |first=Elena |date=16 December 2021 |title=El PRI busca una salida socialdemócrata a su crisis de identidad |url=https://elpais.com/mexico/2021-12-16/el-pri-busca-una-salida-socialdemocrata-a-su-crisis-de-identidad.html |access-date=12 January 2022 |website=El País México |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=La muerte acecha |url=https://www.diariopresente.mx/opinion/la-muerte-acecha/313266 |access-date=16 January 2022 |website=Diario Presente}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=13 December 2021 |title=Se define PRI como socialdemócrata, de centro izquierda, feminista y ambientalista |url=https://adnoticias.mx/se-define-pri-como-socialdemocrata-de-centro-izquierda-feminista-y-ambientalista/ |access-date=18 January 2022 |website=AD Noticias |language=es-MX}}</ref> 

In the [[2024 Mexican general election|2024 general election]], as part of the [[Fuerza y Corazón por México]] coalition, the party supported independent candidate [[Xóchitl Gálvez]] (considered close to the National Action Party) for President, who finished in second place. The party recorded its worst result by vote share in its history, although narrowly managed to avoid its worst seat results thanks to a slight gain made in the Senate. It was also the first time in its history that the party failed to win at least 10 constituency seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

==Election results==
===Presidential elections 1929–2024===
{| class="wikitable"
! Election
! Candidate
! Votes
! %
! Outcome
! Notes
|-
! [[1929 Mexican presidential election|1929]]
| [[Pascual Ortiz Rubio]]
| style="text-align:right" | 1,947,848
| style="text-align:right" | 93.6
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| As PNR, first election after the formation of the party. The opposition candidate [[José Vasconcelos]] claimed victory for himself and refused to recognize the official results, claiming that the elections were rigged; then he unsuccessfully attempted to organize an [[:es:Plan de Guaymas|armed revolt]].
|-
! [[1934 Mexican general election|1934]]
| [[Lázaro Cárdenas]]
| style="text-align:right" | 2,225,000
| style="text-align:right" | 98.2
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| As PNR. Revolutionary general. First president to serve a six-year term; chosen by Calles as party candidate
|-
! [[1940 Mexican general election|1940]]
| [[Manuel Ávila Camacho]]
| style="text-align:right" | 2,476,641 	
| style="text-align:right" | 93.9
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| As PRM. Revolutionary general. The opposition candidate [[Juan Andreu Almazán]] refused to recognize the official results, claiming that a massive electoral fraud had taken place. He later fled to [[Cuba]] and unsuccessfully tried to organize an armed revolt.
|-
! [[1946 Mexican general election|1946]]
| [[Miguel Alemán Valdés]]
| style="text-align:right" | 1,786,901 
| style="text-align:right" | 77.9
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| First civilian president since the Mexican Revolution.
|-
! [[1952 Mexican general election|1952]]
| [[Adolfo Ruiz Cortines]]
| style="text-align:right" | 2,713,419 
| style="text-align:right" | 74.3
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| The opposition candidate [[Miguel Henríquez Guzmán]] claimed victory and refused to recognize the official results, claiming that massive electoral fraud had taken place.
|-
! [[1958 Mexican general election|1958]]
| [[Adolfo López Mateos]]
| style="text-align:right" | 6,767,754
| style="text-align:right" | 90.4
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| First Mexican presidential elections in which women were allowed to vote.
|-
! [[1964 Mexican general election|1964]]
| [[Gustavo Díaz Ordaz]]
| style="text-align:right" | 8,368,446
| style="text-align:right" | 88.8
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| 
|-
! [[1970 Mexican general election|1970]]
| [[Luis Echeverría]]
| style="text-align:right" | 11,970,893
| style="text-align:right" | 86.0
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| 
|-
! [[1976 Mexican general election|1976]]
| [[José López Portillo]]
| style="text-align:right" | 16,727,993
| style="text-align:right" | 100.0
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| Elected unopposed.
|-
! [[1982 Mexican general election|1982]]
| [[Miguel de la Madrid]]
| style="text-align:right" | 16,748,006
| style="text-align:right" | 74.3
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| Last election where the PRI faced no serious opposition.
|-
! [[1988 Mexican general election|1988]]
| [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]]
| style="text-align:right" | 9,687,926
| style="text-align:right" | 50.7
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| All of the opposition parties claimed that the election was rigged and refused to recognize the official results; [[Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas]] and [[Manuel Clouthier]] both claimed victory. First election where the PRI candidate received under 70% of the vote.
|-
! [[1994 Mexican general election|1994]]
| [[Ernesto Zedillo]]
| style="text-align:right" | 17,181,651
| style="text-align:right" | 48.6
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| Chosen as the PRI candidate after the 23 March 1994 assassination of [[Luis Donaldo Colosio]].
|-
! [[2000 Mexican general election|2000]]
| [[Francisco Labastida]]
| style="text-align:right" | 13,579,718
| style="text-align:right" | 36.1
| {{N}} Defeated
| First PRI presidential candidate chosen by a primary. First loss in a presidential election.
|-
! [[2006 Mexican general election|2006]]
| [[Roberto Madrazo]]
| style="text-align:right" | 9,301,441
| style="text-align:right" | 22.2
| {{N}} Defeated
| Coalition: [[Alliance for Mexico|Alianza por México]].
|-
! [[2012 Mexican general election|2012]]
| [[Enrique Peña Nieto]]
| style="text-align:right" | 19,226,284
| style="text-align:right" | 38.2
| {{Y}} '''Elected'''
| Coalition: [[Commitment to Mexico|Compromiso por México]]
|-
! [[2018 Mexican general election|2018]]
| [[José Antonio Meade]]
| style="text-align:right" | 9,289,378 
| style="text-align:right" | 16.4
| {{N}} Defeated
| Coalition: [[Todos por México]]
|-
! [[2024 Mexican general election|2024]]
| [[Xóchitl Gálvez]]
| style="text-align:right" | 5,736,759
| style="text-align:right" | 9.77
| {{N}} Defeated
| Vote totals are only for the PRI line of the [[Fuerza y Corazón por México]] coalition. First time PRI made a coalition with PAN. First woman nominee.
|}

===Congressional elections===
====Chamber of Deputies====
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2"| Election
! colspan="2"| Constituency
! colspan="2"| PR
! rowspan="2"| No. of seats
! rowspan="2"| Position
! colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Presidency
! rowspan="2"| Note
|-
! Votes
! %
! Votes
! %
|-
![[1934 Mexican general election|1934]]
|
|
| colspan="2" rowspan="10" bgcolor="#cccccc" |
|{{composition bar|173|173|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
|[[Lázaro Cárdenas]]
|[[File:Logo Partido de la Revolucion Mexicana.svg|23px]]
|
|-
! [[1940 Mexican general election|1940]]
|
|
| {{composition bar|172|173|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| rowspan="2" | [[Manuel Ávila Camacho]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:Logo Partido de la Revolucion Mexicana.svg|23px]]
|
|-
![[1943 Mexican legislative election|1943]]
| style="text-align:right" |376,000
| style="text-align:right" |92.1
|{{composition bar|147|147|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
|
|-
! [[1946 Mexican general election|1946]]
| style="text-align:right" | 1,687,284
| style="text-align:right" | 73.5
| {{composition bar|141|147|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| rowspan="2" | [[Miguel Alemán Valdés]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
![[1949 Mexican legislative election|1949]]
| style="text-align:right" |2,031,783
| style="text-align:right" |93.9
|{{composition bar|142|149|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
|
|-
! [[1952 Mexican general election|1952]]
| style="text-align:right" | 2,713,419
| style="text-align:right" | 74.3
| {{composition bar|151|161|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| rowspan="2" | [[Adolfo Ruiz Cortines]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
![[1955 Mexican legislative election|1955]]
| style="text-align:right" |5,562,761
| style="text-align:right" |89.9
|{{composition bar|153|162|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
|
|-
! [[1958 Mexican general election|1958]]
| style="text-align:right" | 6,467,493
| style="text-align:right" | 88.2
| {{composition bar|153|162|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority 
| rowspan="2" | [[Adolfo López Mateos]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
![[1961 Mexican legislative election|1961]]
| style="text-align:right" |6,178,434
| style="text-align:right" |90.3
|{{composition bar|172|178|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
|
|-
! [[1964 Mexican general election|1964]]
| style="text-align:right" | 7,807,912
| style="text-align:right" | 86.3
| {{composition bar|175|210|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| rowspan="2" | [[Gustavo Díaz Ordaz]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
![[1967 Mexican legislative election|1967]]
| style="text-align:right" |8,342,114 
| style="text-align:right" |83.9
|
|
|{{composition bar|177|210|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
|
|-
! [[1970 Mexican general election|1970]]
| style="text-align:right" | 11,125,770
| style="text-align:right" | 83.3
|
|
| {{composition bar|178|210|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| rowspan="2" | [[Luis Echeverría Álvarez]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
![[1973 Mexican legislative election|1973]]
|
| style="text-align:right" |77.3
|
|
|{{composition bar|189|232|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" |Supermajority
|
|-
! [[1976 Mexican general election|1976]]
| style="text-align:right" | 12,868,104
| style="text-align:right" | 85.0
|
|
| {{composition bar|195|237|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| rowspan="2" | [[José López Portillo]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
![[1979 Mexican legislative election|1979]]
| style="text-align:right" |9,418,178
| style="text-align:right" |72.8
|
|
|{{composition bar|296|400|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
|
|-
! [[1982 Mexican general election|1982]]
| style="text-align:right" | 14,501,988
| style="text-align:right" | 69.4
| style="text-align:right" | 14,289,793
| style="text-align:right" | 65.7
| {{composition bar|299|400|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| rowspan="2" | [[Miguel de la Madrid]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
![[1985 Mexican legislative election|1985]]
| style="text-align:right" |11,575,063
| style="text-align:right" |68.1
| style="text-align:right" |10,981,938
| style="text-align:right" |63.3
|{{composition bar|289|400|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
|
|-
! [[1988 Mexican general election|1988]]
| style="text-align:right" | 9,276,934
| style="text-align:right" | 51.0
| style="text-align:right" | 9,276,934
| style="text-align:right" | 51.0
| {{composition bar|260|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Majority
| rowspan="2" | [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|First loss of supermajority
|-
! [[1991 Mexican legislative election|1991]]
| style="text-align:right" | 14,051,349
| style="text-align:right" | 61.4
| style="text-align:right" | 14,145,234
| style="text-align:right" | 61.4
| {{composition bar|320|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Majority
|
|-
! [[1994 Mexican general election|1994]]
| style="text-align:right" | 16,851,082
| style="text-align:right" | 50.2
| style="text-align:right" | 17,236,836
| style="text-align:right" | 50.3
| {{composition bar|300|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Majority
| rowspan="2" | [[Ernesto Zedillo]]|| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
! [[1997 Mexican legislative election|1997]]
| style="text-align:right" | 11,305,957
| style="text-align:right" | 39.1
| style="text-align:right" | 11,438,719
| style="text-align:right" | 39.1
| {{composition bar|239|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#c3ffb7" | Minority
|First loss of majority
|-
! [[2000 Mexican general election|2000]]
| style="text-align:right" | 13,720,453
| style="text-align:right" | 36.9
| style="text-align:right" | 13,800,306
| style="text-align:right" | 36.9
| {{composition bar|207|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| rowspan="2" | [[Vicente Fox]] || rowspan="2" | [[File:PAN Party (Mexico).svg|23px]]
|
|-
! [[2003 Mexican legislative election|2003]]
| style="text-align:right" | 6,166,358
| style="text-align:right" | 23.9
| style="text-align:right" | 6,196,171
| style="text-align:right" | 24.0
| {{composition bar|224|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
|
|-
! [[2006 Mexican general election|2006]]
| style="text-align:right" | 11,629,727
| style="text-align:right" | 28.0
| style="text-align:right" | 11,689,110
| style="text-align:right" | 27.9
| {{composition bar|104|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| rowspan="2" | [[Felipe Calderón]]
| rowspan="2" | [[File:PAN Party (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| Coalition: [[Alliance for Mexico]]
|-
! [[2009 Mexican legislative election|2009]]
| style="text-align:right" | 12,765,938
| style="text-align:right" | 36.9
| style="text-align:right" | 12,809,365
| style="text-align:right" | 36.9
| {{composition bar|237|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
|
|-
! [[2012 Mexican general election|2012]]
| style="text-align:right" | 15,166,531
| style="text-align:right" | 31.0
| style="text-align:right" | 15,513,478
| style="text-align:right" | 31.8
| {{composition bar|212|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#c3ffb7" | Minority
| rowspan="2" | [[Enrique Peña Nieto]]
| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| rowspan="2" | Coalition: [[Commitment to Mexico]]
|-
! [[2015 Mexican legislative election|2015]]
| style="text-align:right" | 11,604,665
| style="text-align:right" | 34.2
| style="text-align:right" | 11,638,556
| style="text-align:right" | 29.2
| {{composition bar|203|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#c3ffb7" | Minority
|-
! [[2018 Mexican general election|2018]]
| style="text-align:right" | 4,351,824
| style="text-align:right" | 7.78
| style="text-align:right" | 9,310,523
| style="text-align:right" | 16.54
| {{composition bar|45|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| rowspan="2" | [[Andrés Manuel López Obrador]]
| rowspan="2" | [[File:Morena Party (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| Coalition: [[Todos por México]]. First time not obtaining at least 100 seats or 10% of the constituency vote.
|-
! [[2021 Mexican legislative election|2021]]
| style="text-align:right" | 2,715,123
| style="text-align:right" | 5.56
| style="text-align:right" | 8,715,899
| style="text-align:right" | 17.73
| {{composition bar|69|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| Coalition: [[Va por México]]
|-
![[2024 Mexican general election|2024]]
| style="text-align:right" | 101,574
| style="text-align:right" | 0.18
| style="text-align:right" | 6,623,796
| style="text-align:right" | 11.57
| {{composition bar|35|500|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| [[Claudia Sheinbaum]]
| [[File:Morena_Party_(Mexico).svg|23px]]
| Coalition: [[Fuerza y Corazón por México]]. First time not obtaining at least 10 constituency seats.
|}

====Senate elections====
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2"| Election
! colspan="2"| Constituency
! colspan="2"| PR
! rowspan="2"| No. of seats
! rowspan="2"| Position
! colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Presidency
! rowspan="2"| Note
|-
! Votes
! %
! Votes
! %
|-
! [[1964 Mexican general election|1964]]
| colspan="2" rowspan="7" bgcolor="#cccccc" |
| style="text-align:right" | 7,837,364
| style="text-align:right" | 87.8
| {{composition bar|64|64|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| [[Gustavo Díaz Ordaz]]
| [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| 
|-
! [[1970 Mexican general election|1970]]
| style="text-align:right" | 11,154,003
| style="text-align:right" | 84.4
| {{composition bar|64|64|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| [[Luis Echeverría Álvarez]]
| [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| 
|-
! [[1976 Mexican general election|1976]]
| style="text-align:right" | 13,406,825
| style="text-align:right" | 87.5
| {{composition bar|64|64|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| [[José López Portillo]]
| [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| 
|-
! [[1982 Mexican general election|1982]]
| 
| 
| {{composition bar|63|64|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| [[Miguel de la Madrid]]
| [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| 
|-
! [[1988 Mexican general election|1988]]
| style="text-align:right" | 9,263,810
| style="text-align:right" | 50.8
| {{composition bar|60|64|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]]
| [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| 
|-
! [[1994 Mexican general election|1994]]
| style="text-align:right" | 17,195,536
| style="text-align:right" | 50.2
| {{composition bar|95|128|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Supermajority
| rowspan="2" | [[Ernesto Zedillo]]
| rowspan="2" | [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| 
|-
! [[1997 Mexican legislative election|1997]]
| style="text-align:right" | 11,266,155
| style="text-align:right" | 38.5
| {{composition bar|77|128|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#9eff9e" | Majority
| First loss of supermajority
|-
! [[2000 Mexican general election|2000]]
| style="text-align:right" | 13,699,799
| style="text-align:right" | 36.7
| style="text-align:right" | 13,755,787
| style="text-align:right" | 36.7
| {{composition bar|60|128|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| [[Vicente Fox]]
| [[File:PAN Party (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| First loss of majority
|-
! [[2006 Mexican general election|2006]]
| style="text-align:right" | 11,622,012
| style="text-align:right" | 28.1
| style="text-align:right" | 11,681,395
| style="text-align:right" | 28.0
| {{composition bar|39|128|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| [[Felipe Calderón]]
| [[File:PAN Party (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| Coalition: [[Alliance for Mexico]]
|-
! [[2012 Mexican general election|2012]]
| style="text-align:right" | 18,477,441
| style="text-align:right" | 37.0
| style="text-align:right" | 18,560,755
| style="text-align:right" | 36.9
| {{composition bar|52|128|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#c3ffb7" | Minority
| [[Enrique Peña Nieto]]
| [[File:PRI logo (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| Coalition: [[Commitment to Mexico]]
|-
! [[2018 Mexican general election|2018]]
| style="text-align:right" |3,855,984
| style="text-align:right" |6.86
| style="text-align:right" |9,013,658
| style="text-align:right" |15.90
| {{composition bar|13|128|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| [[Andrés Manuel López Obrador]]
| [[File:Morena Party (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| Coalition: [[Todos por México]]
|-
! [[2024 Mexican general election|2024]]
| style="text-align:right" |316,636
| style="text-align:right" |0.55
| style="text-align:right" |6,530,305
| style="text-align:right" |11.33
| {{composition bar|16|128|{{party color|Institutional Revolutionary Party}}}}
| bgcolor="#ffe3e3" | Opposition
| [[Claudia Sheinbaum]]
| [[File:Morena Party (Mexico).svg|23px]]
| Coalition: [[Fuerza y Corazón por México]]
|}

==In popular culture==
The 1999 film ''[[Herod's Law]]'', directed by [[Luis Estrada (director)|Luis Estrada]], is a political satire of [[Political corruption|corruption]] in Mexico under the PRI regime. It was notably the first film to criticize the PRI explicitly by name<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v184643 |title=La Ley de Herodes (2000) – Luis Estrada &#124; Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related |last=Crow |first=Jonathan |website=[[AllMovie]] |publisher=[[All Media Network]] |type=synopsis |access-date=1 July 2016 |quote=The first film to criticize the PRI by name...}}</ref> and carried some controversy and censorship attempts from the Mexican government because of it.

A latter Estrada film, ''[[The Perfect Dictatorship]]'' (2014), dealt with the political favoritism of [[Televisa]] towards the PRI, and the concept of the "cortinas de humo (smoke screens)" was explored in the Mexican black-comedy film, whose plot directly criticizes both the PRI and Televisa.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.forbes.com.mx/la-dictadura-perfecta-mas-alla-de-la-pelicula/#gs.rMxgJsw |title='La dictadura perfecta': más allá de la película |website=Forbes Mexico |first=Mario |last=Maraboto |date=28 October 2014}}</ref> Taking place in a Mexico with a tightly controlled media landscape, the plot centers around a corrupt politician (a fictional stand-in for Enrique Peña Nieto) from a political party (serving as a fictional stand-in for the PRI), and how he makes a deal with TV MX (which serves as a stand-in to Televisa) to manipulate the diffusion of news towards his benefit, in order to save his political career.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atencionsanmiguel.org/2014/10/31/mexican-film-la-dictadura-perfecta-the-perfect-dictatorship-depicts-mexican-reality/ |title=Mexican Film 'La dictadura perfecta' ("The Perfect Dictatorship") Depicts Mexican Reality |first=Sandra |last=Ríos |website=Atención San Miguel |access-date=29 July 2017 |archive-date=13 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180713135515/http://www.atencionsanmiguel.org/2014/10/31/mexican-film-la-dictadura-perfecta-the-perfect-dictatorship-depicts-mexican-reality/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The director made it based on the perceived [[media manipulation]] in Mexico.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-mn-luis-estrada-film-satire-20141103-story.html |title=Mexican filmmaker Luis Estrada's satirical agenda hits home |first=Kate |last=Linthicum |date=3 November 2014 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>

In 2025, journalist [[Denise Maerker]] premiered the documentary series ''PRI: Crónica del Fin'' ({{Translation|''PRI: Chronicle of the End''}}) on the streaming platform [[Vix (streaming service)|Vix]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=LEÓN |first=KARLA |date=2025-09-22 |title=PRI: Crónica del Fin narra el auge y la caída del partido político |url=https://es.hollywoodreporter.com/pri-cronica-del-fin-narra-el-auge-y-la-caida-del-partido-politico/ |access-date=2025-10-04 |website=Hollywood Reporter |language=es}}</ref> The series features interviews with former PRI presidents and prominent party figures, including [[Enrique Peña Nieto]], [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]], [[Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong]], and [[Alito Moreno]], as well as other political figures such as [[Marcelo Ebrard]], [[Vicente Fox]], and [[Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-09-18 |title=‘PRI: Crónica del Fin’, con Salinas de Gortari y Elba Esther: ¿Qué políticos salen en el documental? |url=https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/entretenimiento/2025/09/18/serie-pri-cronica-del-fin-que-politicos-salen-en-el-documental-detalles/ |access-date=2025-10-04 |website=El Financiero |language=es}}</ref> It explores the party's seventy-year political history in Mexico, combining [[stock footage]] with exclusive testimonies from former leaders and party affiliates, and also addresses controversial figures like [[Elba Esther Gordillo]], reflecting on the PRI's influence on the country's political landscape.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PRI: Crónica del Fin: ¿cuándo se estrena el documental y de qué va a tratar? |url=https://heraldodemexico.com.mx/nacional/2025/9/18/pri-cronica-del-fin-cuando-se-estrena-el-documental-de-que-va-tratar-731077.html |access-date=2025-09-20 |website=El Heraldo de México |language=spanish}}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Mexico}}
* [[History of democracy in Mexico]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Roderic Ai Camp|Camp, Roderic A.]] "Mexican Presidential Candidates: Changes & Portents for the Future". ''Polity'', vol. 16, no. 4, 1984, pp.&nbsp;588–605, {{JSTOR|3234631}}.
* [[Peter H. Smith|Smith, Peter H.]] "Mexico Since 1946", in Bethell, Leslie (ed.), ''Mexico Since Independence''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)}}
* {{official website}} {{in lang|es}}
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/opinion/sunday/mexican-democracys-lost-years.html?pagewanted=all "Mexican Democracy's Lost Years"] (''[[The New York Times]]'')

{{Mexican political parties}}
{{Mexico topics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Institutional Revolutionary Party| ]]
[[Category:1929 establishments in Mexico]]
[[Category:Political parties in Mexico]]
[[Category:Parties of one-party systems]]
[[Category:Social democratic parties in Mexico]]
[[Category:Corporatism]]