The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico lost power in 2000 after controlling the governing structure for 71 years. With the old rules gone forever, the PRI needed to regroup in order to survive as a viable party. This thesis explores how the PRI went about transforming its candidate selection procedures from 2000 to 2006 in order to remain a viable political party. Since the president of Mexico made most candidate selection decisions previously, the party had no choice but to reform its procedures. What emerged was a battle for power and influence between and among the party leaders at the national level and party affiliated state governors. Those state governors sought to dominate party structures within their states as the President of the Republic once dominated the party nationally. To restore the legitimacy many in the party thought it lost, the PRI first experimented with open primaries. It eventually concluded that open primaries caused divisions, thus often hurting the party electorally. As time passed, the PRI moved away from selecting candidates through open primaries and sought to nominate unity candidates. / text

In many countries there are several political parties in power. In some of them, however, one party is in a position of hegemony. Other political parties are prevented to exercise their real power and often act only as a parties creating an illusion of democracy in a state where it does not exist. The present thesis deals with the hegemonic party systems in terms of their origin and subsequent transition. The thesis is based on the hypothesis that changing the rules of the hegemonic party will lead it to lose its status and power. As a case study of the hegemonic party regimes serves political system in Mexico, Mozambique and Cambodia. The first chapter defines the notion of a political party, party systems theory and transition mode. The second chapter deals with the hegemonic party systems. The third chapter deals with the case of Mexico and its system of hegemonic party. Findings refute the validity of the above hypothesis, since in many countries, even after the successful completion of the transition, earlier hegemonic parties maintain their power and their electoral support is high.