Democratic Regression through Violence? Analyzing the Impact of Violence and Organized Crime on the Quality of Democracy in Mexico

Violence in its different expressions and exercised by various state and non-state actors is currently one of the most pressing problems and challenges for various nations worldwide, as it has adverse effects on the entire political and social life of a population and hence on the democratic quality. Despite these empirical observations, the relationship between violence, violent non-state actors and the quality of democracy is still unclear and under-examined as the prevalent democracy assessments have yet to incorporate these developments sufficiently in their measurements. In the debate about democratic regression through violence, understood as a loss of democratic quality, Mexico is an especially interesting case. After completing its democratic transition in 2000, expectations arose that Mexico would transform to a functioning democracy. However, with the declaration of the war on drugs in 2006 the country slid into a spiral of violence that was unknown up until that point. This violence, which has continued to accelerate until now, as well as the increasing presence of organized criminal groups give cause to analyze whether these factors have an adverse effect on the quality of democracy. The following article will answer this question by analyzing the quality of the Mexican democracy and its development between 2000 and 2015. The analysis is carried out by the empirical application of the 15-Field-Matrix of Democracy, which was complemented by context-specific indicators to measure the mentioned factors. The thesis is that Mexico has experienced a democratic regression due to the presence of organized criminal groups and the high level of violence. The article suggests that violence and the presence of violent non-state actors should generally be included in detail in a democracy assessment to achieve a more valid measurement of democratic quality, and it provides inductive generated indicators to achieve this

Criminology · Democracy · Political science · Politics · Quality (philosophy · Regression analysis · Sociology · Statistics · Conflict, Peace, and Violence in Colombia · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Mathematics

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