Still Learning to Make Votes Count? Electoral Coordination in Mexico's Mixed-Member Electoral System

Abstract

Mexico is a third-wave democracy with complex and often reformed mixed-member electoral rules. Conditions that, a priori, typically suggest little to no electoral coordination. This study relies on an original district-level dataset from eight consecutive post-authoritarian elections; a time-series cross sectional design; and two fixed-effects statistical models. In all, it makes three valuable contributions. First, that soon after the first democratic election, actors in Mexico coordinate as expected in more established democracies. Second, that even though previous evidence from Mexico is mixed, high levels of ethnic fragmentation hinder coordination. And third, it uncovers previously unexplored spatial and temporal elements to the literature on the political consequences of mixed-member electoral rules.