The Haphazard State: Political Power, Development, and the Making of Mexico's Drug Wars

The inability of Latin American states to curtail violence represents one of the most urgent questions in the region. In several countries, violence is embedded in transnational dynamics of drug trafficking, and it portends the rise of criminal actors as quasi-governmental authorities in local communities. Focusing on the case of Mexico, my book project explains the historical origins of the country’s ongoing drug wars — a series of commodity-fueled conflicts between the state, organized crime, and civil society. I argue that drug trafficking and criminal rule are not outcomes of state absence, but the sociopolitical byproducts of haphazard state building. This claim is based on a subnational comparative-historical analysis of drug markets and nonstate governance in two drug-producing states from the 1930s to the present. This research draws on archival materials, interviews, and statistical analyses.