According to Stoner and McFaul, when the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was defeated and voted out of office in 2000, this turnout allowed the completion of a successful transition to democracy in Mexico ( 264). Although a transition has occurred and Mexico has solid democratic foundations, staggering corruption, poor rule of law, and drug-related violence have halted Mexican democratic consolidation. The current state of Mexican democracy is apparently difficult to analyze because Mexico is still a relatively new democracy. The Mexican government has come a long way and still has much to work on to improve its democracy. The Mexican government has succeeded in sustaining substantive and procedural methods of governance, but has failed in terms of participation and responsiveness. The current government allows elections and reforms to take place when civil society has requested them, but civil society, although it has become more active, has not been able to hold the privileged elite political class accountable (Nytimes 1) . Election reform laws adopted in 1994-1996 allowed for better transparency and fairness when voting (Stoner and Mcfaul 263). These laws, as well as the devaluation of the peso, led voters to turn against the PRI, which inevitably allowed voters to form a new party (Stoner and Mcfaul 262). The success of a new party in 2000 enabled a democratic transition, but the inertia has been lost and democratic consolidation is not possible unless some problems are addressed. The PRI party, which had governed Mexico for 71 years using an unjust system of corruption, was defeated, but what they left behind is creating further challenges to democratic consolidation. In 2000, once the charter was under control and civil society was more committed to establishing the rule of law, democratic consolidation could take effect in Mexican governance in the long term.Works CitedEmmerich, Gustavo E." The state of democracy in Mexico". Idea.int. Institute for Democracy and Election Assistance, nd Web. January 10, 2014.Gonzalez, Francisco. Countries at the crossroads. House of Freedom, 2013. Web. 10 January 2014. "Deaths in Mexico's drug war in five years total 47,515." BBC News. BBC, 1 December 2012. Web. 9 January 2014. “The Lost Years of Mexican Democracy.” New York Times, June 23, 2012. Web. January 9, 2014. O'Neill, Shannon K. "Mexico: Development and Democracy at a Crossroads." A summary on markets and democracy. Council on Foreign Relations, February 2011. Web. January 9, 2014. "Mexico." Countries at the crossroads. Freedom House and Web. January 9. 2014.