Rethinking Citizens’ Roles in Security Policy: A Mexican Case

The paper will consider the findings of a large research project in Mexico in the light of a recent article by Enrique Arias in Global Crime (2018). Drawing on his research in Kingston, Rio de Janeiro and Medellin, Arias extends the insights of the literature on policy co-production, usually applied to the role of civic organizations in policy-making, to appraise the ways in which criminal organizations also intervene in policy. He argues, moreover, that criminal organizations frequently engage with civic organizations in a bid to influence policy, especially when they lack the legitimacy to relate directly to policy-makers. Arias thus draws our attention to the complexity of the relation between criminal organizations, civil organizations and state policy-makers. In the process, he also problematizes the assumption that civil organizations necessarily work against criminal ones, signalling that willing or otherwise civil actors may serve as mediators for criminal actors. I will develop his approach by applying it to the case of Mexico, where I lead a team project that is concluding in July, and by extending his insights to consider the civic actors that look to obstruct criminals’ influence in policy.