> Strong organized crime weakens and delegitimizes the government
Hot take but I blame the early 2000s Drug War for this - not because of the economics of drugs, but because this meant the Mexican govt couldn't co-opt Organized Crime into the political system.
Looking at countries like Taiwan [0], South Korea [1], Japan [2], and Italy [3], when they were at a similar stage as Mexico in the early 2000s (1980s, 1990s, 1970s, 1980s respectively) these countries co-opted Organized Crime into the economic system by cracking down on certain black market industries (eg. Drugs) while allow them to operate in other grey market industries (eg. Construction, Real Estate, Loan Sharking, Commodities, Sex Work) or operate abroad (eg. In VN/PH/TH/Mainland for Asian gangs and South America+Eastern Europe for the Mafia).
Organized crime is morally reprehensible, but Mexico in the 2000s was not in the position to combat them. Co-option would have saved thousands of lives, and given an easier off ramp out of Drug industry into other high value sectors (which cartels have started to break into), which would have allowed them to legitimize or at least have less of an incentive to pursue a de facto insurgency.
Hot take but I blame the early 2000s Drug War for this - not because of the economics of drugs, but because this meant the Mexican govt couldn't co-opt Organized Crime into the political system.
Looking at countries like Taiwan [0], South Korea [1], Japan [2], and Italy [3], when they were at a similar stage as Mexico in the early 2000s (1980s, 1990s, 1970s, 1980s respectively) these countries co-opted Organized Crime into the economic system by cracking down on certain black market industries (eg. Drugs) while allow them to operate in other grey market industries (eg. Construction, Real Estate, Loan Sharking, Commodities, Sex Work) or operate abroad (eg. In VN/PH/TH/Mainland for Asian gangs and South America+Eastern Europe for the Mafia).
Organized crime is morally reprehensible, but Mexico in the 2000s was not in the position to combat them. Co-option would have saved thousands of lives, and given an easier off ramp out of Drug industry into other high value sectors (which cartels have started to break into), which would have allowed them to legitimize or at least have less of an incentive to pursue a de facto insurgency.
[0] - https://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/563
[1] - https://www.refworld.org/docid/45f1476234.html
[2] - https://academic.oup.com/book/37281/chapter-abstract/3308936...
[3] - http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/292/italian-politic...