orporatist. Key sectors such as petroleum were nationalized, while high tariff barriers protected often-inefficient Mexican industries. A patronage-oriented "official" labor movement doled out favors to maintain labor peace. For many years this system operated effectively to maintain stability, though it did little to promote growth. However, after a long period of stagnation, if stability, pressures for both economic and political change began to develop. Liberalizing economic reforms began, hesitantly, under President de la Madrid (1982-88), and at an accelerating pace under his successors, Salinas de Gortari (1988-94) and Zedillo (1994-2000; see Storr 1).
Political change began more gradually, and under strong pressure from below. It has now been acknowledged that the 1988 election was "stolen" from by the PRI from reformist candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas (Henry 1). Faced with the growing reality that it could no longer count on its patronage system to provide election victories, the PRI began to implement political reforms. Among these were giv
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