Criminal governance and state capacity in Mexico: Citizen support for political-criminal pacts

Introduction: The complexity that criminal governance has acquired through predatory and clientelistic actions by criminal groups has called into question the state's capacity to protect the population. In Mexico, as in other countries in the region, this has placed in the public debate the rel...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Hernández Morales, Alan Salvador, Alva Rivera, Miguel Eduardo, Sandoval Vargas, Hector
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:Ecuador
Institución:Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales
Repositorio:Revista URVIO
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec:article/6267
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec/urvio/article/view/6267
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Gobernanza criminal
Clientelismo
Capacidad estatal
Pactos político-delictivos
Violencia
Criminal governance
Clientelism
State capacity
Political-criminal pacts
Violence
Descripción
Sumario:Introduction: The complexity that criminal governance has acquired through predatory and clientelistic actions by criminal groups has called into question the state's capacity to protect the population. In Mexico, as in other countries in the region, this has placed in the public debate the relevance of pacts between the government and criminals as a measure to reduce violence. Objective: Therefore, this research aims to understand the factors that influence people's support for a political-criminal arrangement, as well as those that contribute to considering criminal organizations legitimate and approving the impunity of their members. Methodology: To this purpose, we conducted an econometric analysis based on two nationally representative surveys. Conclusions: The results suggest that when clientelistic criminal governance is exercised and when there is less state capacity in the area of security, citizen approval of the pacts between the government and criminal groups increases, as well as their legitimacy. On the contrary, when criminal governance is violent, the population's repudiation of criminals increases and there is greater pressure on the government to fight them.