Seminar series State-evading Solutions to Violence: Organized Crime and Governance in Indigenous Mexico Add to calendar 2023-12-07 17:00 2023-12-07 18:30 Europe/Rome State-evading Solutions to Violence: Organized Crime and Governance in Indigenous Mexico Seminar Room 2 Badia Fiesolana YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Dec 07 2023 17:00 - 18:30 CET Seminar Room 2, Badia Fiesolana Organised by Department of Political and Social Sciences Paper presentation by Beatriz Magaloni (with Kristof Gosztonyi, Universität Osnabrück; and Sarah Thompson, Stanford University) in the context of the Comparative Politics Seminar Series The monopoly of violence in the hands of the state is associated with the creation of political order. This influential vision about the emergence of order misses the important problem that parts of the state and its law enforcement apparatus often become extensions of criminality rather than solutions to it. We argue that one solution to this dilemma is to opt out from the state. Using a multi-method strategy combining qualitative research, quasi-experimental statistical analysis, and survey data, the paper demonstrates that indigenous communities in Mexico are better able to escape predatory criminal rule and to live more secure where they are legally allowed to carve a space of autonomy from the state through the institution of usos y costumbres. We trace this outcome to the presence of strong direct participatory democratic practices, the presence of a community police run by local townsmen, and a parallel system of justice independent from the state, making communities more immune to cartel infiltration. Register Links More information Related events