Votes, Drugs, and Violence

Votes, Drugs, and Violence PDF Author: Guillermo Trejo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108899900
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
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 PDF Author: Guillermo Trejo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108899900
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 379

Get Book

Book Description
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 PDF Author: Guillermo Trejo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108841740
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
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 PDF Author: Guillermo Trejo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781108894807
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"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"--

Making Peace in Drug Wars

Making Peace in Drug Wars PDF Author: Benjamin Lessing
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107199638
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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

Bringing the State Back In

Bringing the State Back In PDF Author: Social Science Research Council (U.S.). Committee on States and Social Structures
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521313131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
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.

The End of Policing

The End of Policing PDF Author: Alex S. Vitale
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1784782904
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
The massive uprising following the police killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020--by some estimates the largest protests in US history--thrust the argument to defund the police to the forefront of international politics. It also made The End of Policing a bestseller and Alex Vitale, its author, a leading figure in the urgent public discussion over police and racial justice. As the writer Rachel Kushner put it in an article called "Things I Can't Live Without", this book explains that "unfortunately, no increased diversity on police forces, nor body cameras, nor better training, has made any seeming difference" in reducing police killings and abuse. "We need to restructure our society and put resources into communities themselves, an argument Alex Vitale makes very persuasively." The problem, Vitale demonstrates, is policing itself-the dramatic expansion of the police role over the last forty years. Drawing on first-hand research from across the globe, The End of Policing describes how the implementation of alternatives to policing, like drug legalization, regulation, and harm reduction instead of the policing of drugs, has led to reductions in crime, spending, and injustice. This edition includes a new introduction that takes stock of the renewed movement to challenge police impunity and shows how we move forward, evaluating protest, policy, and the political situation.

Buried Secrets

Buried Secrets PDF Author: Victoria Sanford
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781403960238
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Between the late 1970s and the late-1980s, Guatemala was torn by mass terror and extreme violence in a genocidal campaign against the Maya, which becameknown as "La Violencia." More than 600 massacres occurred, one and a half million people were displaced, and more than 200,000 civilians were murdered, most of them Maya. Buried Secrets brings these chilling statistics to life as it chronicles the journey of Maya survivors seeking truth, justice, and community healing, and demonstrates that the Guatemalan army carried out a systematic and intentional genocide against the Maya. The book is based on exhaustive research, including more than 400 testimonies from massacre survivors, interviews with members of the forensic team, human rights leaders, high-ranking military officers, guerrilla combatants, and government officials. Buried Secrets traces truth-telling and political change from isolated Maya villages to national political events, and provides a unique look into the experiences of Maya survivors as they struggle to rebuild their communities and lives.

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 PDF Author: United States
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal justice, Administration of
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description


Mano Dura

Mano Dura PDF Author: Sonja Wolf
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477311661
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
In 1992, at the end of a twelve-year civil war, El Salvador was poised for a transition to democracy. Yet, after longstanding dominance by a small oligarchy that continually used violence to repress popular resistance, El Salvador’s democracy has proven to be a fragile one, as social ills (poverty chief among them) have given rise to neighborhoods where gang activity now thrives. Mano Dura examines the ways in which the ruling ARENA party used gang violence to solidify political power in the hands of the elite—culminating in draconian “iron fist” antigang policies that undermine human rights while ultimately doing little to address the roots of gang membership. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and policy analysis, Mano Dura examines the activities of three nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have advocated for more nuanced policies to eradicate gangs and the societal issues that are both a cause and an effect of gang proliferation. While other studies of street gangs have focused on relatively distant countries such as Colombia, Argentina, and Jamaica, Sonja Wolf’s research takes us to a country closer to the United States, where forced deportation has brought with it US gang culture. Charting the limited success of NGOs in influencing El Salvador’s security policies, the book brings to light key contextual aspects—including myopic media coverage and the ironic populist support for ARENA, despite the party’s protection of the elite at the expense of the greater society.

Britain's China Policy and the Opium Crisis

Britain's China Policy and the Opium Crisis PDF Author: Glenn Melancon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351954733
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The first Opium War (1840-42) was a defining moment in Anglo-Chinese relations, and since the 1840s the histories of its origins have tended to have been straightforward narratives, which suggest that the British Cabinet turned to its military to protect opium sales and to force open the China trade. Whilst the monetary aspects of the war cannot be ignored, this book argues that economic interests should not overshadow another important aspect of British foreign policy - honour and shame. The Palmerston's government recognised that failure to act with honour generated public outrage in the form of petitions to parliament and loss of votes, and as a result was at pains to take such considerations into account when making policy. Accordingly, British Cabinet officials worried less about the danger to economic interests than the threat to their honour and the possible loss of power in Parliament. The decision to wage a drug war, however, made the government vulnerable to charges of immorality, creating the need to justify the war by claiming it was acting to protect British national honour.