Roderic Ai Camp, the Philip M. McKenna Professor of the Pacific Rim, will deliver the keynote address to the 224 incoming PRI deputies of the Mexican Congress on Monday, Aug. 18 in Puebla, Mexico. He has been asked to address the differing views of democracy between Mexicans and Americans, the first in a series of speeches organized by the PRI on issues they expect to address in the next session of congress. Camp says he appreciates the honor of such an opportunity, equating it to, "asking a French scholar to address the United States Congress about US-French relations and the theory of democracy," he said.
The PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) has dominated Mexican politics since its beginning in 1929, until the election of the current Vicente Fox administration. The PRI represents the plurality in Congress, and says Camp, "will play the crucial role if the Fox administration is to achieve any legislation in the final three years."
Camp is the author of more than 20 books, including Politics in Mexico: The Democratic Transformation; Crossing Swords: Religion and Politics in Mexico; and his newest, Mexico's Mandarins: Crafting a Power Elite for the Twenty-First Century.