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Criminal Enterprises and Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean

Criminal Enterprises and Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean

Criminal Enterprises and Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean

Author:
Enrique Desmond Arias, George Mason University, Virginia
Published:
May 2018
Availability:
Available
Format:
Paperback
ISBN:
9781316607824

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    This book examines security in three cities that suffer from chronic violence: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Medellin, Colombia; and Kingston, Jamaica. In each, democratic states contend with subnational armed groups that dominate territory and play important roles in politics even as they contribute to fear and insecurity. Through a nested three-city, six-neighborhood analysis of the role of criminal groups in governance, this research provides a deep understanding of the impact of crime on political experience. Neighborhoods controlled by different types of armed actors, operating in the same institutional context, build alliances with state officials and participate in political life through the structures created by these armed actors. The data demonstrates the effects criminal dominance can have on security, civil society, elections, and policymaking. Far from reflecting a breakdown of order, varying types of criminal groups generate different local lived political experiences.

    • Offers systematic cross-country comparisons of criminal activity
    • Includes in-depth discussion of crime in neighborhoods dominated by different types of criminal organizations
    • Provides richly detailed descriptions of criminal-political activities built on extensive qualitative interviews and ethnographic observation

    Product details

    • Published: May 2018
    • Format: Paperback
    • ISBN: 9781316607824
    • Length: 318 pages
    • Dimensions: 228 × 151 × 16 mm
    • Weight: 0.48kg
    • Contains: 4 b/w illus. 21 tables
    • Availability: Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction. Conflict and governance patterns in Latin America and the Caribbean
    • 1. Constellations of governance: theoretical approaches to micro-level armed regimes
    • 2. Poverty, popular incorporation, and armed groups in Latin America and the Caribbean
    • 3. The structure of micro-level armed regimes
    • 4. Security systems in areas subject to micro-level armed regimes
    • 5. Armed groups, civil society, and social mobilization
    • 6. The impact of armed dominance on elections
    • 7. Policy process amid armed organizations
    • Conclusion. Things change (and they stay the same): understanding the politics of micro-level armed regimes
    • Bibliography
    • Index.

    Author

    Enrique Desmond Arias , George Mason University, Virginia

    Enrique Desmond Arias is Associate Professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, Virginia. He authored Drugs and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro (2006) and co-edited Violent Democracies in Latin America (with Daniel M. Goldstein, 2010). He has published in Comparative Politics, the Latin American Research Review, Qualitative Sociology, Latin American Politics and Society, and Studies in Comparative International Development.