POLITICAL SCENE * A context of modernizing elements facing deep-seated conservative interests has been the basis of Mexican politics since Independence and remains so today. Within that context certain trends have appeared in recent years: political modernization and the anchoring of democracy; the integration into wider political and economic blocs including modifications in the historic relationship with the United States (the key foreign element in modern Mexican life); and the persistence of regional issues of great influence on national progress. * The most important trend in recent years, and one seemingly well set to continue, is the anchoring of democracy in Mexico. While Mexico has been a formal democracy since Independence, in reality the nation has been plagued by essentially a series of caudillos, representatives of local and regional power arrangements that have been successful at reaching national levels. * As the PRI’s dominance waned in the wake of growing calls for real democracy and an opening of the nation to the world in the 1970s, eighties and nineties, there was a true awakening of democratic forces in the country. New political forces such as the PAN (Partido Acción Nacional or National Action Party – centre-right) and the PDR (Partido de la Revolución Democrática or Party of the Democratic Revolution – centre-left) increasingly challenged the PRI and eventually, in 2000, this led to the electoral victory of the PAN under President Vicente Fox. This was the first time a non-PRI candidate had won a presidential election since 1929. * The trend in Mexico has been an opening of the state and the political system, undeniable improvements in the respect for the human rights of the population at large, and improved transparency and accountability. But those improvements, almost all observers would agree, have a long way to go before