Do political reforms unleash the forces of fundamental change? Or do they alleviate the pressures for change? Posing these questions, Morris explores the historical ability of Mexico's one-party-dominant, authoritarian regime to weather frequent periods of political and economic crisis, as well as its potential for surviving into the coming century. Part 1 of the book traces Mexico's contemporary political crisis and the efforts of President Miguel de la Madrid (1982-1988) and Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) to "change the system to save it". Part 2 then provides three complementary comparative approaches: regional, historical, and cross-national. The regional perspective looks at reformism in Mexico at the state level. The historical perspective compares the periods of crisis/reform through the 1990s. And the cross-national perspective considers how the most recent crisis resulted from changing global conditions that challenged authoritarian regimes throughout the world - and why, in contrast to other countries, Mexico successfully adapted to and overcame these obstacles.