Homicidal Ecologies: Illicit Economies and Complicit States in Latin America (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
Cambridge University Press, 12/6/2018
EAN 9781107178472, ISBN10: 1107178479
Hardcover, 438 pages, 23.5 x 15.9 x 3.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Why has violence spiked in Latin America's contemporary democracies? What explains its temporal and spatial variation? Analyzing the region's uneven homicide levels, this book maps out a theoretical agenda focusing on three intersecting factors: the changing geography of transnational illicit political economies; the varied capacity and complicity of state institutions tasked with providing law and order; and organizational competition to control illicit territorial enclaves. These three factors inform the emergence of 'homicidal ecologies' (subnational regions most susceptible to violence) in Latin America. After focusing on the contemporary causes of homicidal violence, the book analyzes the comparative historical origins of weak and complicit public security forces and the rare moments in which successful institutional reform takes place. Regional trends in Latin America are evaluated, followed by original case studies of Central America, which claims among the highest homicide rates in the world.
Part I. Introduction
1. Violence in third wave democracies
2. Engaging the theoretical debate and alternative arguments
Part II. The Argument about Homicidal Ecologies
3. Illicit economies and territorial enclaves
the transnational context and domestic footprint
4. State capacity and organizational competition
strategic calculations about territory and violence
Part III. Divergent Trajectories in Central America
Three Post-Civil War Cases
5. High violence in post-Civil-War Guatemala
6. High violence in post-Civil War El Salvador
7. Circumscribing violence in post-Civil War Nicaragua
Part IV. Looking Backwards and Forwards
8. Concluding with states.