Impact of Electoral Systems on Indigenous Political Representation

The purpose of this study is to describe how the Mexican government has been perpetuating a continuous cultural, socio-economic, and political exclusion of the indigenous people since 1810 to the present. The study demonstrates that indeed socio-economic, cultural and political exclusion of the indigenous people has been a constant throughout the three phases that are analyzed in the study. These phases are the independence (1810-1821), the post-evolutionary epoch (1910-1990), and the modern time (1991-present). This exclusion has been due, to a large extent, to indigenous underrepresentation at national and state level. This underrepresentation, in turn, is due to lack of more permissive electoral mechanisms that directly facilitate indigenous representation. A reserved seats systems is proposed to solve this underrepresentation.