have never acknowledged the loss of a presidential election and always controlled both houses of Congress. (Dominguez 1999a, p3) The machinery of politics at the president's service, the ruling party and the government officials charged with managing political affairs, often governed effectively, but to maintain their political control, they also resorted to electoral fraud and abuse of power.
             The official opposition party of the PRI is the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), which is a right-wing political group. Other opposition parties are the Partido Autentico de la Revolucion Mexicana (PARM), Partido Popular Socialista (PPS), the Partido Communista Mexicano (PCM), and the Partido Socialista Unificado de Mexico (PSUM). Except for the PAN, none of Mexico's opposition parties have been able to develop a nationwide, mass following. The opposition parties are mainly outlets for dissident political leaders, keeping them within the government-sanctioned arena of political competition. However, PAN was essential to the PRI as it helped maintain the image that the PRI was truly revolutionary. The reason that PAN accepted its non-dominant status is that the PRI consulted with business leaders associated with the PAN when deciding on policy or on people to fill certain positions. The PAN played a cooperative role, until last summer when PAN won the presidential election.
             The PRI operates through an informal system of camarillos or political cliques. (Johnson 1984b, p136) Throughout the development of the contemporary Mexican political system, the creation of pressure groups of one sort or another has been crucial to the exercise of power. The camarillos are a tightly knit core of loyal and influential people, the cliques are usually founded around the power of a given individual who has the ability to control behavior and allocate rewards, this makes the person the catalyst who gives the grou
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