Claiming (again) to Represent Otherwise: Morena As Not-the-Prd, Which Emerged As Not- the-PRI

Political representation is produced by contesting, as well as propositive, discourses, not only regarding policies, but also concerning the very ways of representing. Especially in political regimes where political distrust and disaffection with traditional parties are widespread, constructing new electoral and organizational options requires that alternative ideals of representation itself be offered. In this paper, we study the representative claims at stake in the two break­offs that have reshaped Mexico’s party system very significantly in less than three decades. The first split was the result of a group of prominent dissidents from the once hegemonic Revolutionary Institutional Party, PRI, to form the Democratic Revolution Party, PRD, which came to encompass a plurality of small left­wing parties and social movements. This allowed the previously minority National Action Party, PAN, to be comparable in vote share to both, the old PRI and the new PRD, thus creating a system with three big parties. The second one was a detachment from this PRD, instigated by its most charismatic leader and a group of very loyal followers, which gave rise to a party called National Regeneration Movement (MORENA). This has resulted in four relatively big parties, the smallest now being the PRD. In the analysis, we discuss the political circumstances that influenced the divisions at the elite level, the programmatic or ideological stances taken by the emergent parties, and both the opportunities and challenges they currently face to strengthen political representation in a defective democracy.