Authoritarian Legacies and Incumbency Advantage in Mexico's Gubernatorial Elections
Party Machines Over Performance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8239355 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Víctor Hernández-Huerta (0000-0002-8440-308X, Wake Forest University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Politics in Latin America (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1868-4890 • E-ISSN: 1866-802X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1866802x261430766 |
| OpenAlex | W7134916395 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 36 |
What explains electoral success in Mexico's gubernatorial elections after its transition to democracy? And to what extent did governors shape electoral outcomes in this period? This paper argues democratic competition, combined with the decentralisation of resources to the states, reinforced authoritarian-era practices like clientelism and the discretionary use of public funds by incumbents. As a result, electoral success was driven less by government performance and more by the support candidates received from the incumbent governor. Candidates from the governor's party were more likely to win because governors could deploy public resources, channel funds, or pressure local electoral authorities to tilt the playing field in favor of their co-partisans, thereby diminishing the relevance of performance-based voting. The analysis draws on a dataset of 238 candidates nested in 98 gubernatorial elections held between 2000 and 2017, along with interviews with gubernatorial candidates that shed light on the mechanisms behind the incumbency advantage
Authoritarianism · Clientelism · Decentralization · Democracy · Democratization · Electoral reform · Government (linguistics · Relevance (law · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Politics and Society in Latin America
Democratization and Authoritarian Party Survival
Voting for Autocracy
The American Voter Revisited
Clientelism and portfolio diversification
Citizen–politician linkages
Incumbency, Campaign Spending, and the Decline of Competition in U.S. House Elections
Ballot Structure, Candidate Race, and Vote Choice in Brazil
Candidate Experience and Electoral Success
Name Recognition and Candidate Support
Looking Like a Winner
Sources of Candidate Success in Gubernatorial Elections, 1910-1970
Context Counts
Gubernatorial Coattails in Mexican Congressional Elections
What Makes a Successful Candidate? Political Experience and Low-Information Cues in Elections
Groceries for Votes
Can Parties Police Themselves? Electoral Governance and Democratization
Is Mexico at the Gates of Authoritarianism
Economic Voting Reconsidered
Campaign Persuasion and Nascent Partisanship in Mexico's New Democracy
Electoral Competition, Participation, and Government Responsiveness in Mexico
Who Delivers? Partisan Clients in the Argentine Electoral Market
The Game of Electoral Fraud and the Ousting of Authoritarian Rule
The New Federalism of Mexico's Party System
Unusual Bedfellows? PRI-PVEM Electoral Alliances in Mexican Legislative Elections
Electoral Accountability in a Multilevel Governance Context
Incentives to cultivate a personal vote
Is the incumbent curse the incumbent's fault? Strategic behavior and negative incumbency effects in young democracies
Do clientelistic machines affect electoral outcomes? Mayoral incumbency as a proxy for machine prowess
Perverse Accountability
Electoral Competition and the New Party System in Mexico
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |