The Politics of Corruption

Lecture 12: Organized Crime, Violence, and State Capture

Bogdan G. Popescu
bgpopescu@tec.mx

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Today

How do criminal organizations influence public officials and provide governance of their own?

By the end, students should be able to:

  • explain the plata o plomo logic and why groups combining bribes and violence capture policy cheaply
  • explain how party alternation broke state–cartel protection pacts and triggered Mexico’s criminal wars (Trejo–Ley)
  • predict, using Dell’s findings, how enforcement crackdowns reshape trafficking routes and violence