Violence and Political Participation in Mexico

• In Event: Crimen, inseguridad y política en México (parte I)

Abstract

This paper uses municipal level crime/violence data to examine whether insecurity depresses citizen participation. Unique dataset constructed by combining INEGI (Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography) crime statistics with ENVIPE (National Survey of Victimization and Perception of Public Security) data and electoral turnout figures from IFE (Federal Electoral Institute) to examine whether municipalities with high levels of insecurity (both real and perceived) have lower or higher electoral participation rates than towns with lower levels of insecurity. The literature is divided over the question of whether victims of crime turn out at higher or lower levels than non-victims.

Author

• Jeffrey J Ryan, University of Arkansas