PRI on the Rise

Marco Rascón argues that the coming rise of the PRI is nothing of the sort, but rather a descent of the PAN and the PRD. I think there's a lot of truth to that, and (as Rascón suggests) there's a good chance that after a series of wins in 2009, Mexicans will be reminded why they weren't that crazy about PRI governments.

He also mentions what seems to me to be a hair-brained scheme from the PRI:

From the PRI's standpoint, it is seeking to become without allies the primary force in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and from their drive the cabinet reform so that the secretary of the interior, as with a prime minister, is named by the Congress, which would mean an advance in the PRI's takeover of the executive branch, taking without a doubt Manlio Fabio Beltrones to Interior.

The chances of this happening don't seem too great (it is a blatantly horrible, horrible idea), but what is all this mania about changing structures? Every week someone is proposing fairly significant changes to the government, as if the all that makes Mexico hard to run is ill-planned agencies. Any government's institutions are imperfect, and perhaps Mexico's more than most, but I always find myself asking why people jump to replacement without taking a longer look at improvement. This scheme is a most egregious (and self-interested) example of "changeism" that I've seen in Mexico, in Rascón's telling nothing less than a smoke-and-mirrors change from a presidential to a parliamentary system (and a naked grab for power). Whatever the case, there's something to be said for not looking for a magic bullet with structural changes (and all the inevitable surprises that come along with major modifications), but rather making the existing bodies work as best as they can. How about it Mexico?

Also, in case it is unclear from the rest of the post, I think this is just a plainly awful idea from the priístas, both in its essence and its proposed implementation. May they suffer nightmares as punishment for their devious schemes.