According to topschoolsintheusa, the United States of Mexico is a federal presidential republic. The Constitution of 1917 is in force with numerous amendments (the last ones were introduced in 1996 and 2002). Administrative divisions: 31 states and 1 Federal District; Mexico City (Federal District), States: Aguascalientes, Veracruz, Guerrero, Guanajuato, Durango, Hidalgo, Campeche, Queretaro, Quintana Roo, Coahuila, Colima, Mexico City, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Baja California, Baja California (southern), Nuevo -Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Jalisco, Chihuahua, Chiapas, Yucatan.
The largest cities: Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Veracruz, Leon, Queretaro, Tampico.
The principles of state administration in accordance with the Constitution of 1917 meet the criteria of a representative liberal democracy. The Constitution establishes the principles of separation of powers, regular holding of free elections by universal, direct and secret suffrage, responsibility of the executive to the legislature, freedom of speech and association, political pluralism, protection of individual rights of citizens, separation of church and state, state control over the economic and social sphere, executive control over the army, etc. The supreme body of legislative power is the Congress of the Union, consisting of the Chamber of Senators (Senate) (128 people) and the Federal Chamber of Deputies (500 people).
Executive power is vested in the president, who is the head of state and government. The president forms the cabinet, appoints and removes ministers, the attorney general (with the approval of the Senate), members of the Supreme Court (with the approval of the Senate), and other senior civil servants. The president determines domestic and foreign policy, has legislative initiative and veto power, establishes diplomatic relations and concludes international treaties. Head of state – since December 1, 2000 – President Vicente Fox Quesada, he is also the head of the executive branch (government).
In accordance with the Constitution of 1917 and the electoral law of 1996, the President of Mexico is elected by the population on the basis of universal, direct, secret suffrage for a period of 6 years, without the right to re-election. The Senate is elected by the people for a term of 6 years. 96 of its members are elected by majoritarian lists (3 from each subject of the federation) and 32 – on the basis of the proportional principle, according to party lists, in a single nationwide multi-member constituency. The Chamber of Deputies is elected by the people for a term of 3 years (300 deputies in single-member districts, on the basis of a majoritarian system, and 200 in 5 multi-member districts, on the basis of a proportional system). The legally established threshold for counting votes under the proportional voting system is 2%. Each state has its own constitution and a unicameral congress (Legislative Assembly), elected by the population for 2 or 4 years, executive bodies headed by the governor (elected by the population for 6 years). Local self-government bodies are municipalities whose members are elected by the population every 2 years. The 1996 law introduced the election of the head of the government of the Federal District on the basis of universal, secret and direct suffrage (since December 2000 – M. Lopez Obrador, elected twice from the Democratic Revolution Party).
Prominent presidents and other statesmen: Benito Juarez Pablo (1806-72) – the national hero of Mexico. In 1958–61 he was the head of the government, in 1861–72 he was the president of the country, went down in the history of Mexico as a fighter for democracy and the country’s independence;
Cardenas y del Rio Lazaro (1895-1970) – General, as President of Mexico in 1934-40, carried out a number of democratic and progressive socio-economic transformations (nationalization of railways, oil companies, creation and strengthening of the public sector, radical agrarian reform), in 1942-45 – Minister of National Defense, Laureate of the International Lenin Prize “For the strengthening of peace among peoples” (1955).
In 1929-2000, the party-political structure of Mexico was based on the monopoly of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which actually merged with the state apparatus and reigned supreme in the socio-political life of the country under the formally existing multi-party system. As a result of the constitutional reforms of the electoral legislation, by the beginning of the new millennium, a system of three main political parties had developed in the country (the right-wing PAN, ruling since 2000, the centrist PRI and the center-left PRD), which have important positions in power and in state institutions at various levels. Since 1994, the Ecological Green Party of Mexico and the Labor Party have been elected to parliament, and in 2000, the Convergence for Democracy. The last elections were held in July 2003. The traditional peripheral parties ceased to exist.
In accordance with the 1996 law, in order to obtain registration, a party must collect 3,000 signatures in at least 10 out of 32 subjects of the federation or in 100 out of 300 single-mandate districts. The officially established threshold for retaining the registration of a nationwide political party in federal elections is 2%. The state and private funding of the parties participating in the elections is set at a ratio of 90 to 10.
