Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Mexico--a country whose name has become synonymous with drugs, crime, violence, and insecurity. While global media fascination and academic interest has been fixated on the drug war, however, an equally dangerous threat has emerged--the privatization of the police and security force.
In The Punitive City, Markus-Michael Muller explores how local political dynamics have played a huge part in Mexico's chronic instability. Encompassing a wider context of urbanized neoliberalism and democratization of local politics, Muller closely examines the new reality of extreme security privatization sweeping the country and the contradictory responses on this phenomenon from politicians, activists, and residents. Alarmingly, his research discovers that there is a political protection racket emerging in the region due to the rise of privatized security and gated communities, leading to increased exclusion and violence towards those on the socio-economic margins. Side-stepping the drug war discourse that typically dominates Mexico, The Punitive City deftly tackles the problems of inequality and uneven development spreading across Latin America.
Synopsis
In the eyes of the global media, modern Mexico has become synonymous with crime, violence and insecurity. But while media fascination and academic engagement has focussed on the drug war, an equally dangerous phenomenon has taken root. In The Punitive City, Markus-Michael M ller argues that what has emerged in Mexico is not just a punitive urban democracy, in which those at the social and political margins face growing violence and exclusion. More alarmingly, it would seem that clientelism in the region is morphing into a private, political protection racket.
Vital reading for anyone seeking to understand the implications of a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly widespread across Latin America.