Rising from the Ashes

This article attempts to explain why certain state Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI) affiliates in Mexico are able to rebuild their organizations and why others are not. The author finds that severe problems of collective action impede the once hegemonic PRI from restructuring its state parties after the defeat of the state executive because the top-down impositions that once forced PRI politicians to cooperate no longer exist. These findings have serious implications for the national PRI now that it, too, has lost the presidency.