From the PRI Hegemony to the Post-PRI Era: Presidential Approval in the Mexican Transition.

People's perception of the responsiveness of the political system affects the way that citizens approve the president. In an autocratic regime such as the PRI hegemony (93-00), citizens tend to focus their attention on economic problems such as unemployment when they evaluate the president. In the emerging Mexican democracy (01-06), political problems such as crime and corruption become more important when people examine the president's performance. This finding can be explained by a change in citizens' expectations of the president, the salience of crime as a national issue in Mexican politics since the mid-1990s, and the strong association in citizens' mind between the old PRI regime and corruption. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]