Common sense without common ground: The concept of democratic transition in Mexican politics

In contemporary Mexico, political elections have turned into fundamentally free, fair, competitive, and clean contexts. Yet, in political debate, the idea prevails that the country's transition to democracy is still on its wa y. How can we explain this apparent divergence? First, as the article argue s, empirical disagreements over the state of democratization persist due to the veiled nature of the Mexican transition. Second, normative disagreemen ts over the endpoints of democratization have raised the standards a comple te transition must fulfill. Third, the idea of an ongoing transition has tu rned into political common sense. It has become part of 'ordinary' language . Accordingly, political actors may use it in many different ways but still harbour an illusion of shared meaning and common ground.