THE DECADE FROM THE LATE 1970s TO THE LATE 1980S, WHICH BEGAN with the birth of the Thatcher and Reagan administrations and concluded with the fall of communist regimes throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, and the concurrent rise of the Asian NIES states, was the renaissance era of laissez-faire economic liberalism or neoliberalism. ‘Privatization’, ‘deregulation’, and ‘small government’ became popular slogans globally, borrowed heavily from the policy proposals of neoliberal economists such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. It was best manifested in the world-wide trend towards privatization, involving more than one hundred countries.

ON 21 MAY 1998, INDONESIA'S AUTHORITARIAN PRESIDENT SUHARTO, in power since 1966, abruptly resigned from office and was succeeded by his vice-president, Bacharuddin Jusuf (B. J.) Habibie. Though retired for decades, Suharto was an army general and relied heavily on the support of the armed forces to rule this vast archipelago, the world's fourth largest country. Habibie is a civilian with long government service as minister of research and industry. President Suharto, Habibie often claimed, taught him everything he knew about politics.

LAST YEAR, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN BRAZILIAN POLITICAL HISTORY, an election for the presidency of the Republic took place which permitted the current president to run for a second term. Although a practice widely adopted in the democratic world, re-election of a head of government was not authorized by the constitutions of all Latin American countries. This was due largely to its being perceived negatively, as a means of perpetuation in power – as a synonym for dictatorship. Only recently was it established in Peru, in Argentina and, last year, in Brazil, giving Messrs Fujimori, Menem and Cardoso a chance to run for and win a second term in office in their respective countries. In Brazil, the opposition accused the president in office of trying to maintain himself in power. However, the change resulted from congressional approval, in accordance with the constitution. Moreover, after having passed its first test last year, the re-election is already part of the established framework and taken as a fact of reality.

MEXICO'S NATIONAL, MID-TERM ELECTlONS OF JULY 1997 PRODUCED important changes in the country's political landscape. The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has dominated virtually all realms of Mexican politics since the late 1920s, suffered an unprecedented setback, losing its majority in the lower house of the Mexican Congress.

Though the era of single-party political domination appears to have come to an end, policy-making since the July 1997 elections has exhibited considerable continuity. Notwithstanding the opposition's new legislative majority, the will of the President, Ernest0 Zedillo, of the PRI, has prevailed on important issues of public policy. What can the continued legislative strength of the President, in the wake of significant opposition gains, tell us about the nature of democratization in Mexico?