The Business of Governing: Corruption and Informal Politics in Mexico City's Markets, 1946–1958

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Business of Governing

T2 - Corruption and Informal Politics in Mexico City's Markets, 1946–1958

AU - Bleynat, Ingrid

PY - 2017/8/14

Y1 - 2017/8/14

N2 - This paper uses corruption in Mexico City's markets as a lens to examine state–society relations and the construction of the PRI's hegemony in post-1946 Mexico. It presents three case studies that show how some ostensibly corrupt practices supported state functioning, while others contributed to the process of party building. It demonstrates that these practices were driven by shifting social dynamics and conflicts among vendors, which operated through networks of formal and informal power. Historicising corruption illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of the Mexican state as well as the balance between co-optation and popular demands that lay behind it in this period.

AB - This paper uses corruption in Mexico City's markets as a lens to examine state–society relations and the construction of the PRI's hegemony in post-1946 Mexico. It presents three case studies that show how some ostensibly corrupt practices supported state functioning, while others contributed to the process of party building. It demonstrates that these practices were driven by shifting social dynamics and conflicts among vendors, which operated through networks of formal and informal power. Historicising corruption illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of the Mexican state as well as the balance between co-optation and popular demands that lay behind it in this period.

KW - Corruption

KW - Informal politics

KW - tax farming

KW - municipal markets

KW - vendors

KW - Mexico City

U2 - 10.1017/S0022216X17000785

DO - 10.1017/S0022216X17000785

M3 - Article

SN - 0022-216X

JO - Journal of Latin American Studies

JF - Journal of Latin American Studies

ER -