DECEMBER 01, 14:42 EST

By the Associated Press

Mexico has never before had a peaceful transfer of power. After the Mexican Revolution a century ago, feuding factions battled for power until they were all drawn together in a single political party, known as the PRI.

The PRI ruled Mexico after its 1929 creation, never letting another party grow into a threat, and using fraud in the rare cases when one did. Over the past 20 years, it gradually ceded to pressure to make the electoral process more fair.

Still, it was a shock when Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party won the presidency on July 2. The PRI fell into a deep crisis; the security guards around the party's heavily guarded headquarters simply walked away.

Nobody knows what Fox will find after 71 years of single-party rule. Under the PRI, corruption has run rampant throughout Mexico. Political scandals usually have been handled behind closed doors.

Fox's election raises hopes for a new openness and a crackdown on corruption. He also promises economic growth, educational reform and more intense relations with the United States.

But he faces tremendous obstacles as well. There is no majority in either house of Congress, and Fox concedes that the forces that have grown powerful over seven decades are waiting to pounce.