Civil society and political elections: A culture of distrust?

After a long history of electoral fraud and especially after the fraudulent and conflictive presidential elections of 1988, Mexicans entered the 1990s with deep skepticism toward political elections. In the present decade, ho wever, government and opposition parties have agreed to several profound el ectoral reforms that have succeeded in bringing fraud under control, How ha ve Mexican citizens reacted to these institutional changes? save they hiber nated under the protective cover of an unchanging culture of distrust? Alte rnatively, have they adapted their expectations and perceptions of electora l fraud to the new democratic realities? The present; article supports the hypothesis of change. Through analysis of data ft om various opinion polls, it arrives at an optimistic picture: trust in elections has steadily incre ased since 1988. Yet this optimism is diminished by a note of caution: more recent surveys indicate that distrust may be reemerging in the face of the critical presidential elections of the year 2000.