Party (PAN) defeated the PRI candidate. .
Given the dominance of the executive over the legislative and judicial .
branches, interest groups and lobbyists similar to those found in the United .
States have not developed in Mexico. Groups and individuals who wish to .
influence policy do so primarily through the executive branch, seeking .
contacts with agency heads and cabinet figures and, on occasion, with the .
president himself.
The president is elected by direct popular vote every six years and cannot be .
reelected. Presidents acquire tremendous authority because they also control .
the selection of candidates in their party for elective office at the national .
level. Therefore, most members of Mexico's congress owe their political .
careers to the president. The executive also can exercise great influence .
simply because many Mexicans have come to expect a strong president. The .
president is the chief policy maker, and the executive branch has initiated 90 .
percent of Mexico's legislation. Members of the president's handpicked .
cabinet are the most influential members of the executive branch. Until .
President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon took office in December 1994, no .
president had selected a member of an opposition party as a cabinet official. .
The cabinet is divided into smaller groups, such as an economic or national .
security cabinet, which make policy recommendations to the president or .
respond to his policy initiatives.
The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate make up Mexico's bicameral .
legislative body. Members of the 500-member Chamber of Deputies are .
elected for three-year terms, 300 of them from single-member districts, just as .
in the United States House of Representatives, and 200 on the basis of a .
complex formula related to the percentage of votes cast for each party's .
candidates. The 128-member Senate is elected every six years. Since the year .
2000, all members of the Senate have been on the same election cycle.