La relación recíproca entre la participación ciudadana y la rendición de cuentas: la experiencia de los Fondos Municipales en el México rural

Abstract

In Costa Rica, parties gradually transformed a fraud-ridden political system into one renowned for its stability and fair elections by the mid-twentieth century. The authors draw unpon a unique database of more than 1300 acusations of ballot-rigging to show that, independently of social structural constraints, parties denounced fraud where electoral laws made the struggle for power more competitive. They also explain how institutional arrangemente generated opportunities for several executuives  to assemble legislative coalitions to enacto far-reaching reforms. This paper also argues that nonpartisan commisions should run elections; it explains why splitting responsability over election affaris between the executive and legislature, as classical constitutional theory suggests, is recipe for pastisan rencor and political conflict.