The Mexican Constitution, signed on 5 February 1917, establishes that Mexico is a Federal, Democratic, Representative Republic, constituted by 31 states and a Federal District, in a Federation, but free and sovereign in their internal regime. In 2018, the Federal District legally changed its status to an autonomous entity now defined as Mexico City.

The Government is constituted by three powers: Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary. The Executive power rests with the President who is elected for 6-year periods. Historically there was no re-election of public officials in Mexico at any level until a Political-Electoral Reform in 2014 permitted re-elections within the Legislative branch for Deputies, Senators, and municipal heads (mayor). The Legislative power resides with Congress, which is constituted by a bi-cameral system. The Chamber of Deputies is integrated by 500 Federal Deputies and is elected every three years. The Senate is integrated by 128 members and is elected every six years. Finally, the Judiciary branch is headed by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation as well as a number of federal and state-level courts of justice.

Moreover, within the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project, Mexico’s classification in the Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism measure[1] of governance was -0.65 (the measure ranges from approximately -2.5 (weak) to 2.5 (strong) governance performance) showing a weak overall governance and a low ranking of 23.33 in comparison to all other countries (The World Bank, 2019).

[1] The indicator measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism.

References:

The World Bank. (2019). Mexico Data. https://data.worldbank.org/country/mexico