The Political Economy of Crime and Violence in Latin America

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Despite being a largely democratic region and ​having enjoyed sustained periods of economic development​ in the last two decades​, Latin America has become the world’s most violent region. Latin America’s “epidemic of violence” represents more than a formidable development and security challenge: it also raises important questions about the politics of elections, governance, and democratic consolidation in places where the state and the rule of law are weak. This panel showcases four papers that address these questions by leveraging innovative theory and novel data. Using social network analysis, Schmidt-Padilla traces the formation, structure, and evolution of criminal gangs under weak institutional settings. His findings suggest that gangs are not just a manifestation of societal ills and weak institutions, but a persistent phenomenon that embeds itself in all aspects of society. Against this backdrop, the remaining papers examine the influence of these criminal and violent groups on electoral politics. Pocasangre leverages a mixed-methods strategy to investigate when crime harms or helps politicians at the polls. Carpio and Pique examine how emergency declarations impact local politics in Peru. Finally, Meléndez-Sánchez reframes criminal organizations as proactive, strategic participants in electoral politics. He develops the concept of “criminal electioneering” and outlines a general framework to analyse how and why criminal organizations engage in electioneering. Together, these four papers point to a new research agenda on the nexus between criminal organizations and electoral politics in Latin America and beyond.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 6: Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• The Parallel State: Crime, Weak Institutions, and the New Urban Order - Carlos Schmidt-Padilla, University of California at Berkeley

• Voting for Security: When Does Crime Hurt or Help Politicians? - Oscar Pocasangre, Columbia University

• Criminal Electioneering - Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez, Harvard University

• The Effect of States of Emergency and Martial Law on Local Governance - Miguel Angel Carpio, Universidad de Piura; Ricardo Pique, Ryerson University

Chair

• Benjamin Lessing University of Chicago

Discussant

• Abby B. Cordova University of Kentucky