Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T15:33:42.724Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Undermining the Rule of Law: Democratization and the Dark Side of Police Reform in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Diane E. Davis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article asks whether democratization, under certain historical conditions, may relate to the deteriorating rule of law. Focusing on Mexico City, where police corruption is significant, this study argues that the institutionalized legacies of police power inherited from Mexico's one-party system have severely constrained its newly democratic state's efforts to reform the police. Mexico's democratic transition has created an environment of partisan competition that, combined with decentralization of the state and fragmentation of its coercive and administrative apparatus, exacerbates intrastate and bureaucratic conflicts. These factors prevent the government from reforming the police sufficiently to guarantee public security and earn citizen trust, even as the same factors reduce capacity, legitimacy, and citizen confidence in both the police and the democratically elected state. This article suggests that when democracy serves to undermine rather than strengthen the rule of law, more democracy can actually diminish democracy and its quality.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , Spring 2006 , pp. 55 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcocer, Jose V., 1997. Inseguridad pública. Proceso (Mexico City), September 28: 49–51.Google Scholar
Alvarado Mendoza, Arturo, and Sigrid, Arzt, eds. 2001. El desafîo democrático de México: seguridady estado de derecho. Mexico City: El Colegio de México.Google Scholar
Andreas, Peter. 1998. The Political Economy of Narco-Corruption in Mexico. Current History 97 (April): 160–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arzt, Sigrid. 2000. Scope and Limits of an Act of Good Faith: the Pan's Experience at the Head of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic. in Bailey and Godson 2000. 103–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Astorga, Luis. 2000. Organized Crime and Organization of Crime. in Bailey and Godson 2000. 58–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, John, and Roy, Godson, eds. 2000. Organized Crime and Democratic Governability: Mexico and the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Benítez Manaut, Raúl. 2000. Containing Armed Groups, Drug Trafficking, and Organized Crime in Mexico: the Role of the Military. in Bailey and Godson 2000. 126–58.Google Scholar
Brueggeman, John. 2004. Review of Society under Siege by Zygmunt Bauman. Contemporary Sociology 33, 2: 222–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldeira, Teresa, and Jim, Holston. 2002. Democracy and Violence in Brazil. Comparative Studies in Society and History 41, 4: 691–729.Google Scholar
Call, Charles T. 2003. Democratisation, War and State-Building: Constructing the Rule of Law in El Salvador. Journal of Latin American Studies 35: 827–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CNI en Linea . 2004a. Asegura Ebrard que Fox siguio el “curso político” para destituirlo. December 7. http:www.cni.tvciudad.Google Scholar
CNI en Linea . 2004b. Consideran Pan y Pri positive remoción de Ebrard. December 7.Google Scholar
CNI en Linea . 2004c. Acto autoritario, destitutión de Ebrard: Victor Hugo Cirigo. December 12.Google Scholar
CNI en Linea . 2005a. Vecinos de Santiago Atlaltongo golpearon a los agentes, pero éstos fueron rescatados a tiempo por elementos de su propia corporatión, de la policía federal preventiva y de la policía estatal que se presentaron en el lugar. January 1.Google Scholar
CNI en Linea . 2005b. Indigará Pgr detención de agents de la Afi en Edomex. January 19.Google Scholar
CNI en Linea . 2005c. Récord de denuncias contra la Pgjdf. January 28.Google Scholar
CNI en Linea . 2005d. Continúa grave el linchado an Alvaro Obregon. February 14.Google Scholar
Conaghan, Catherine. 2004. Deepening Civil and Social Rights. in O'Donnell et al. 2004. 216–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Diane E. 2001. Detective Story: Tracking the Capital City Police in Mexico's Political Historiography. Paper presented at the International Symposium on History, Culture, and Identity in Mexico City: The Last and Next 100 Years. Mexico City: Universidad Autónoma de México, Atzcapotzalco. May.Google Scholar
Davis, Diane E. 2003. Law Enforcement in Mexico City: Not Yet under Control. NACLA Report on the Americas 37, 2: 3–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Diane E. 2005. The Guiliani Factor: Zero Tolerance Policing, and the Transformation of the Public Sphere in Downtown Mexico City. Paper presented at the seminar “Securing Public Space,” Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Mit, November 28.Google Scholar
Davis, Diane E., and Arturo, Alvarado. 1999. Descent into Chaos? Liberalization, Public Insecurity, and Deteriorating Rule of Law in Mexico City. Working Papers in Local Governance and Democracy 1: 95–197. Istanbul: World Academy for Local Government and Democracy.Google Scholar
Fundación Mexicana para la Salud. 1997. La violencia en la Ciudad de México: anãlisis de la magnitud y su repercusión económica. Mexico City: Fundación Mexicana para la Salud.Google Scholar
González Ruiz, Samuel. 1998. La política oficial de seguridad público. Mexico City: Ediciones Uníos.Google Scholar
González Ruiz, Samuel, Ernesto López Portillo, V., and Jose Arturo, Yáñez. 1994. Seguridad pública en México: problemas, perspectivas, y propuestas. Mexico City: UNAM.Google Scholar
Gregory, Joseph R. 1999. Mexico: a Call to Fight Crime. New York times, February 27: A4.Google Scholar
Hernández, Vicente 2003a. El ejército desmanteló las instalaciones de la Feads. Milenio (Mexico City), January 17: 14.Google Scholar
Hernández, Vicente 2003b. Ofrece Macedo de limpiar la Pgr en cuatro años. Milenio, January 19: 12.Google Scholar
Hernández, Vicente, and Alfredo, Joyner. 2003. Limpia a toda la Pgr, advierte el procurador. Milenio, January 24: 14.Google Scholar
Hite, Katherine, and Paola, Cesarini. 2004. Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin American and Southern Europe. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Inzunza, Anayansin. 2003. Hacen de la corrupción su forma de vida. Reforma (Mexico City), May 19. http:www.reforma.comciudaddemexicoarticulo275116.Google Scholar
La Jornada (Mexico City). 1999a. Aplica la Spp plan de emergencia de control de 37 mil policía. March 9.Google Scholar
La Jornada (Mexico City). 1999b. Defienden calidad moral de jefes policiacos. August 25: 64.Google Scholar
La Jornada (Mexico City). 2001a. Asaltan judiciales mexiquenses a dos policías del Df. July 5: 38.Google Scholar
La Jornada (Mexico City). 2001b. Se contradicen autoridades sobre el inicia de los operativos; sorpresa de capitalinos; patrullan mil 500 policías federales calles del Df. December 4.Google Scholar
La Jornada (Mexico City). 2004. Busca Fox crear superfiscalia y superpolicía. March 26: 1.Google Scholar
Joyner, Alfredo. 2003. Ordenan captura a Wilfrido Robledo. Reforma, January 21: 12.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Marcos. 1991. El estado latinoamericano y el narcotrãfico. Mexico City: Porrúa.Google Scholar
Lawson, Chappell. 2002. Building the Fourth Estate: Democratization and the Rise of a Free Press in Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lechner, Norbert. 2004. On the Imaginary of the Citizenry. in O'Donnell et al. 2004. 203–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lomnitz, Claudio. 2003. The Depreciation of Life During Mexico City's Transition into “the Crisis”. In Wounded Cities: Construction and Deconstruction in a Globalized World, ed. Jane, Schneider and Ida, Susser. Oxford: Berg Press. 47–70.Google Scholar
López Montiel, Gustavo. 2000. The Military, Political Power, and Police Relations in Mexico City. Latin American Perspectives, Special issue, Violence, Coercion, and Rights in the Americas, 27, 2: 79–94.Google Scholar
Martínez deMurgía, Beatriz. 1998. La policía en México. Mexico City: Planeta.Google Scholar
Milenio (Mexico City). 2003. Las cifras de corrupción. January 19: 12.Google Scholar
Morett, Georgina. 2003. Los estados piden más dinero para seguridad. Milenio, January 25: 9.Google Scholar
New York Times . 2004a. Lynchings of Policemen Ignite Outrage at Violence in Mexico. November 24: A4.Google Scholar
New York Times . 2004b. Police Arrest 33 after Lynchings in Mexico City. November 26: A8.Google Scholar
New York Times . 2005. Mexico Says Drug Cartel Had Spy in President̂s Office. February 7: 3.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, Guillermo. 2004. Human Development, Human Rights, and Democracy. in O'Donnell et al. 2004. 9–93.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, Guillermo, Jose Vargas, Cullell, and Osvaldo, M. Iazzetta, eds. 2004. The Quality of Democracy: Theory and Applications. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pardinas, Juan E. 2003. Empollando a Díaz Ordaz. Reforma, June 8.Google Scholar
Picatto, Pablo. 2004. A Historical Perspective on Crime in Twentieth-Century Mexico City. Paper presented at the Janey Conference on Security and Democracy in the Americas, New School University, Graduate Faculty, April 2. Available at http:repositories.cdlib.orgusmexprajmpicatto.Google Scholar
Piñeyro, José Luis. 2004. Fuerzas armadas y combate a las drogas en México: ayer y hoy. Sociología 19, 54: 157–81.Google Scholar
Reforma (Mexico City). 2003a. Recetan a policía del Df: proponen fusionar a preventivas y judiciales para garantizar la preventión e indignatión del delito. January 18: 14a.Google Scholar
Reforma (Mexico City). 2004. Reprueban seguridad; no vence plazo–Gertz: incumplen compromises. July 28: 6a.Google Scholar
Robles Zapata, Adriana. 2002. Coordinadora para la Capitatión de Empresas Somesca. Author research team interview. Mexico City, November 21.Google Scholar
Rotker, Susana, ed. 2002. Citizens of Fear: Urban Violence in Latin America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Sarre, Miguel. 2001. Seguridad ciudadana y justicia penal frente a la democracia, la división de poderes y el federalismo. in Alvarado Mendoza and Arzt 2001. 3–114.Google Scholar
Ungar, Mark. 2002. Elusive Reform: Democracy and the Rule of Law in Latin America. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
El Universal (Mexico City). 2004. Furia en Tláhuac: linchan a 3 agentes. November 24.Google Scholar
Villareal, Andrés. 2002 Political Competition and Violence in Mexico: Hierarchical Social Control in Local Patronage Structures. American Sociological Review 67 (August): 477–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, Laurence. 2004. Notes on Human Development, Human Rights, and Auditing the Quality of Democracy. in O'Donnell et al. 2004. 176–87.Google Scholar
Zepeda, Felipe Victoria. 1994. Perro rabioso: la corrupción policiaca. Mexico City: EDAMEX.Google Scholar
Zepeda Lecuona, Guillermo. 2004. Crimen sin castigo: procuratión de justicia penal y ministerio público en México. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.Google Scholar