Drug trafficking, corruption, and violence in Mexico: mapping the linkages

Drug trafficking, drug-related violence and drug-related corruption have come to dominate Mexican politics in the late 2000s. Most consider corruption central to both the illicit trade and to the government’s war on it. But such relationships have yet to be fully examined and raise a number of questions. This paper explores the links among these variables. The opening section grapples with the theoretical puzzle. It lays out the different types of drug-related corruption and violence and explores in detail the three binary relationships with particular attention to plomo o plata and the possible inverse connection between corruption and violence. Noting that corruption was once associated with relatively peaceful drug trafficking under the PRI but today is tied to violence, the second section addresses the historical puzzle and asks how the complex relationship among these variables has changed in recent years. The final section explores the various dynamic linkages between drug-trafficking violence and corruption. The theoretical discussion is supplemented by examples from Mexico during the current period.     

Book reviews

United States Development Assistance Policy: The Domestic Politics of Foreign Economic Aid. By Vernon W. Ruttan. Baltimore, MD and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Pp.xxiv + 657. £54. ISBN 0 8018 5051 7

India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity. By Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Pp.292. £25. ISBN 0 19 829012 8

Regaining Marxism. By Ken Post. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press for Institute of Social Studies, 1996. Pp.x + 393. £45. ISBN 0 333 65444 7

Inflation and Investment Controls in China: The Political Economy of Central‐Local Relations during the Reform Era. By Yasheng Huang. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp.xviii + 371. £40. ISBN 0 521 55483 7

The Village Concept in the Transformation of Rural Southeast Asia: Studies from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Edited by Mason C. Hoadley and Christer Gunnarsson. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996. Pp.xviii + 229. £35. ISBN 0 7007 0350 0

African Industry in Decline: The Case of Textiles in Tanzania in the 1980s. By Peter de Valk. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996. Pp.xii + 370. £45. ISBN 0 333 65445 5

The Urban Opportunity: The Work of the NGOs in Cities of the South. Edited by Nicolas Hall, Rob Hart and Diana Mitlin. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1996. Pp.xv + 128. £9.95 ISBN 1 85339 347 9

Doctrines of Development. By M.P. Cowen and R.W. Shenton. London: Routledge, 1996. Pp.xv + 554. £18.99. ISBN 0 415 12516 2

Democracy, Development and the Countryside: Urban‐Rural Struggles in India. By Ashutosh Varshney (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp.xi + 214. £35. 0 521 44153 6

Ethnicity and Development: Geographical Perspectives. Edited by Dennis Dwyer and David Drakakis‐Smith. Chichester: J. Wiley &; Sons, 1996. Pp.296. £35. ISBN 0 47196354 2

Indigenous Organizations and Development. Edited by Peter Blunt and D. Michael Warren. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1996. Pp.xv + 253. £16.95. ISBN 1 85339 321 5

Sustainable Tourism in Islands and Small States: Issues and Policies. Edited by Lino Briguglio, Brian Archer, Jafar Jafari and Geoffrey Wall. London: Pinter, 1996. Pp.xiii + 226. £45. ISBN 1 85567 371 1

Sustainable Tourism in Islands and Small States: Case Studies. Edited by Lino Briguglio, Richard Butler, David Harrison and Walter Leal Filho. London: Pinter, 1996. Pp.xiv + 317. £45. ISBN 1 85567 371 1

Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. By Mahmood Mamdani (Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. Pp.xii + 356. (Also published: Kampala: Fountain Publishers. ISBN 9970 02 090 0; Cape Town: David Philip. ISBN 0 85255 399 4; London: James Currey. £14.95. ISBN 0 852555 399 4)     

The economic impact of a foreign debt bail‐out for private firms in Ecuador

In this article the effect of Ecuador's general foreign debt conversion programme on private firms' financial position is analysed. The programme, called the Sucretización, was similar to programmes implemented by many heavily indebted countries after the debt crisis began. I concentrate on the Sucretización's implicit transfer from the government to firms, arguing that it was large, but unnecessary. Very few firms would have gone bankrupt because of their devaluation‐induced foreign exchange losses. What is more, I find no evidence that firms receiving these transfers used them to strengthen their balance sheets.     

Feature reviews

Perspectives on the Philippines

Crisis in the Philippines: The Marcos Era and Beyond. John Bresnan, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1986. 284pp. n/p

The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship and Resistance. Daniel B Schirmer and Stephen Rosskam Shalom, Boston, Massachusetts: South End Press. 1987. 425pp. $11.00hb

The Philippines After Marcos. R J May and Francisco Nemenzo, London: Croom Helm. 1985. 239pp. £19.95hb

Touching Ground, Taking Root: Theological and Political Reflections on the Philippine Struggle. London: Catholic Institute for International Relations. 1986. 214pp. £5.75pb

Winds of change in Moscow

The Sixth Continent: Russia and Mikhail Gorbachev. Mary Frankland, London: Hamish Hamilton. 1987. 292pp. £12.95hb

The Waking Giant. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev. Martin Walker, London: Michael Joseph. 1986. 282pp. £14.95hb

The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline. Seweryn Bialer, London: I B Tauris. 1986. 391pp. £19.50hb

The Soviet Union under Gorbachev. Edited by Martin McCauley, London: Macmillan. 1987. 247pp. £29.50hb/£9.95pb

The future of China

China—Politics, Economics and Society: Iconoclasm and Innovation in a Revolutionary Socialist Country. Marc Blecher, London: Frances Pinter, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Riener. 1986. 232pp. £22.50hb/£6.95pb

The China Challenge: Adjustment and Reform. David S G Goodman, Martin Lockett and Gerald Segal, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul (for Royal Institute of International Affairs). 1986. 86pp. £5.95pb

The Political Economy of Reform in Post‐Mao China. Edited by Elizabeth J Perry and Christine Wong, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1985. 331pp. £11.95pb

Apartheid observed

Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White. Joseph Lelyveld, London: Sphere Books. 1987. 390pp. £3.95pb

Black and Gold: Tycoons, Revolutionaries and Apartheid. Anthony Sampson, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1987. 280pp. £12.95hb

The Sanctions Handbook. Joseph Hanlon and Roger Omond, Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1987. 389pp. £4.95pb

South Africa: No Easy Path to Peace. Graham Leach, London: Methuen. 1986. 312pp. £2.95pb

King Solomon's Mines Revisited: Western Interests and the Burdened History of Southern Africa. William Minter, New York: Basic Books. 1986. 401pp. n/p

Environmental warfare

Herbicides in War: The Long‐Term Ecological and Human Consequences. Edited by Arthur H Westing, London: Taylor and Francis. 1984. 210pp. £15.00hb

Environmental Warfare: A Technical, Legal and Policy Appraisal. Edited by Arthur H Westing, London: Taylor and Francis. 1984. 107pp. £12.00hb     

Government Internal Audits: The Determinants of Quality Supervisory Review of Audit Documentation

This study investigates the factors that impact the quality of government internal audit workpaper review. Numerous concerns have been expressed about the quality of government audits in recent years. The audit workpaper review helps to ensure public officials rely on accurate audit reports and recommendations. A survey was sent to local government chief auditors in the United States to learn about their audit and audit review processes. Survey analysis reveals the quality of audit workpaper review is a function of auditor training, audit client cooperation, audit departments’ budget size, auditor consulting engagements with the clients, etc.     

Imperialism and Chinese nationalism: Germany in Shantung,By John F. Schrecker

Abstract

Professor Schrecker's book is basically a defense of Qing foreign policy during the 1895-1911 period. He demonstrates a concern of nationalism in late Qing with protecting the legal sovereignty of the Chinese state by showing how turn-of-the-century governors Yuan Shi-kai, Zhou Fu, and Yang Shi-xiang labored to defend the territorial integrity of Shandong [Shantung] province against German imperialism. The book's strength lies in Schrecker's conceptual analysis of Chinese foreign policy and its intellectual roots in the late nineteenth century. He argues cogently and with originality that in their concern for defending “sovereignty,” officials like Yuan Shi-kai combined the militant conservative qing-i school of the 1880s with the internationalist approach after 1895 of radical reformers like Kang You-wei. But Schrecker also argues that Qing foreign policy succeeded in stopping German imperialism in Shandong by 1911 and in terms of the empire as a whole that “in the last decade of the dynasty the Chinese government made considerably more progress in its struggle against imperialism than has generally been believed.” (p. 254) In such judgments about the success of late Qing foreign policy, he betrays the bias of what Bulletin readers have come to know as the Harvard school of apologetics for Western and Japanese imperialism. Schrecker deserves credit for drawing attention to the nationalist posture which the late Qing took after 1901 but he goes too far in his defense of the dynasty and the “progress” actually made against Western and Japanese imperialism.     

Authoritarian leaders and multiparty elections in Africa: How foreign donors help to keep Kenya's Daniel arap Moi in power

This article argues that prior accounts of Moi and KANU's re-election in Kenya's 1992 and 1997 polls overemphasise divisions within the opposition and underestimate the role of international actors. Drawing on interviews with central players and internal donor documents, the author demonstrates that aid donors played a central part not only in initially advancing the cause of multipartyism but subsequently also, on several occasions, actively impeding further democratisation. Donors twice knowingly endorsed unfair elections (including suppressing evidence of their illegitimacy) and repeatedly undermined domestic efforts to secure far-reaching political reforms, which were a prerequisite for an opposition victory and a full transition to democracy. In the face of anti-regime popular mobilisation, donors' primary concern appeared to be the avoidance of any path that could lead to a breakdown of the political and economic order, even if this meant legitimising and prolonging the regime's authoritarian rule.     

The Memory of Violence: trauma in the writings of Alexander Kanengoni and Yvonne Vera and the idea of unreconciled citizenship in Zimbabwe

Seasonal Dimensions to Rural Poverty. Edited by Robert Chambers, Richard Longhurst and Arnold Pacey, London: Frances Pinter. 1981. 259pp. £15.50.

International Trade 1980–81. GATT, Geneva: GATT. 1981. 199pp. Swiss Francs.30.

Global Strategy for Growth: a report on North‐South issues. Lord McFadzean of Kelvinside, Chairman of the Study Group London: Trade Policy Research Centre. 1981.100pp. £2.00.

Part‐Time Farming in Cyprus: a pilot study. Richard Pearce, Reading, England: Department of Agriculture Economics and Management, University of Reading. 1981. 93pp. £2.00.

Bank for International Settlements. Fifty‐first Annual Report, April 1980 ‐ March 1981. Bank for International Settlements Basle, Switzerland: B.I.S. 1981.168pp. np.

Divide and Rule: South Africa's Bantustans. Barbara Rogers, London: International Defence and Aid Fund. 1980. 136pp.£2.00pb. (revised and enlarged 2nd edition).

Adrian Guelke

Cultural Atlas of Africa. Edited by Jocelyn Murray, Oxford: Phaidon. 1981.240pp. £17.95.

Cattle, Economics and Development. Raymond Crotty Slough, England: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau. 1980. 253pp. np.

World Bank Annual Report. World Bank, Washington, D.C.: World Bank. 1981.210pp. np.

Farm Power in Bangladesh. Vol. 1 G J Gill, Reading, England: Department of Agricultural Economics and Management, University of Reading. 1981. 248pp. £2.00.