From Deficient States to Relational State Theory: Insecure Security Practices and Criminal Law-Making

The scholarship in political sociology, studies of civil war, policing and criminology has recently taken a turn towards complexifying notions of “corruption”, “collusion”, and the role of state agents in violent activities. However, even the specialised debate on the Latin American state sometimes remains tied to arguments of state capacity vis-à-vis “non-state” actors (capacity in terms of territorial control, expertise, organisational coherence) which can be measured, tied to policy advice, and “improved”, to then provide “better” security to citizens. This contribution adds to the growing interdisciplinary conversation on the role of the state in criminal activities, based on state security practices in Colombia and Mexico. It proposes a relational approach to the state, linking a political economy approach to security to the notion of coloniality. I propose to speak of selective, dynamic security to account for the potentially long-term, yet dynamic security arrangements between a multiplicity of actors with the converging aim of enabling capital accumulation. Rather than an assumed absence of the state, I am interested in the shifting dynamics of statehood, the nature of its presence, and the actors behind state practices. Who shapes state practices? This is also a call on sociologists and scholars of violence to recognize the far-reaching work that has been published in Latin America.