Votes, Drugs, and Violence

Votes, Drugs, and Violence
Author: Guillermo Trejo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2020-09-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108899900

One of the most surprising developments in Mexico's transition to democracy is the outbreak of criminal wars and large-scale criminal violence. Why did Mexican drug cartels go to war as the country transitioned away from one-party rule? And why have criminal wars proliferated as democracy has consolidated and elections have become more competitive subnationally? In Votes, Drugs, and Violence, Guillermo Trejo and Sandra Ley develop a political theory of criminal violence in weak democracies that elucidates how democratic politics and the fragmentation of power fundamentally shape cartels' incentives for war and peace. Drawing on in-depth case studies and statistical analysis spanning more than two decades and multiple levels of government, Trejo and Ley show that electoral competition and partisan conflict were key drivers of the outbreak of Mexico's crime wars, the intensification of violence, and the expansion of war and violence to the spheres of local politics and civil society.

Votes, Drugs, and Violence

Votes, Drugs, and Violence
Author: Guillermo Trejo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2020-09-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108841740

When widespread state-criminal collusion persists in transitions from autocracy to democracy, electoral competition becomes a catalyst of large-scale criminal violence.

Votes, Drugs, and Violence

Votes, Drugs, and Violence
Author: Guillermo Trejo
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-08
Genre:
ISBN: 9781108894807

"In the most widely-accepted minimalist definition, democracy is conceived as a governance system in which citizens select their representatives through competitive elections and resolve their differences without bloodshed. While in recent decades scholars have shown that countries transitioning from authoritarian rule to democracy tend to experience major outbreaks of political violence, and that peace prevails only after democratic rules and practices have been fully engrained in society, the association of democratic mechanisms with different forms of violence continues to be mind-boggling. It continues to be analytically surprising and morally disheartening when newly established democratic mechanisms like voting and competitive elections become catalysts of collective violence. It is even more disconcerting when democratic mechanisms become triggers of violent conflict among "non-political" actors like organized criminal groups and drug cartels, which have long been considered quintessential examples of private illicit actors with no interest or meaningful connection with electoral politics. This book is the result of a long intellectual shared journey aimed at making sense of an uncommonly intense wave of large-scale criminal violence in Mexico that began six years after the end of one-party rule, when President Felipe Calderâon (2006-2012) declared war on the country's drug cartels, triggering multiple state-cartel and inter-cartel violent conflicts across Mexican territory"--

Bringing the State Back In

Bringing the State Back In
Author: Social Science Research Council (U.S.). Committee on States and Social Structures
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 406
Release: 1985-09-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780521313131

Papers from a conference held at Mount Kisco, N.Y., Feb. 1982, sponsored by the Committee on States and Social Structures, the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies, and the Joint Committee on Western European Studies of the Social Science Research Council. Includes bibliographies and index.

Policy, Office, Or Votes?

Policy, Office, Or Votes?
Author: Wolfgang C. Müller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1999-08-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780521637237

This book examines the behaviour of political parties in situations where they experience conflict between two or more important objectives.

Making Peace in Drug Wars

Making Peace in Drug Wars
Author: Benjamin Lessing
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2018
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107199638

State crackdowns on drug cartels often backfire, producing entrenched 'cartel-state conflict'; deterrence approaches have curbed violence but proven fragile. This book explains why.

Resisting Extortion

Resisting Extortion
Author: Eduardo Moncada
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2022-01-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108843387

New ethnographic data leads to insights into the widespread yet understudied phenomenon of criminal extortion in Latin America.

Authoritarian Police in Democracy

Authoritarian Police in Democracy
Author: Yanilda María González
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2020-11-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108900380

In countries around the world, from the United States to the Philippines to Chile, police forces are at the center of social unrest and debates about democracy and rule of law. This book examines the persistence of authoritarian policing in Latin America to explain why police violence and malfeasance remain pervasive decades after democratization. It also examines the conditions under which reform can occur. Drawing on rich comparative analysis and evidence from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, the book opens up the 'black box' of police bureaucracies to show how police forces exert power and cultivate relationships with politicians, as well as how social inequality impedes change. González shows that authoritarian policing persists not in spite of democracy but in part because of democratic processes and public demand. When societal preferences over the distribution of security and coercion are fragmented along existing social cleavages, politicians possess few incentives to enact reform.