The guiding principle of the party was constitutionalism, seeking to reestablish the supremacy of the Federal Constitution of 1857 and the rule of law after thirty years of dictatorship of General Porfirio Díaz. The PCP was also a liberal progressive party which sought to pragmatically introduce some moderate social reforms in order to quench the thirst for justice of a country that was already at the threshold of a social revolution. The ideas of the Party were established in "The Presidential Succession in 1910", a best-selling book published in 1909 by Francisco I. Madero, the scion of one of the wealthiest families in Mexico.