The State, Democracy and Violence in Latin America

Due to the high levels of violence in Latin America, the security policy debate has hesitated between two approaches: the Zero Tolerance approach and the preventive social policy; it is a false dilemma. The effectiveness of both the ’nightstick’ and the ’carrot’ depends on the quality of democracy. If the State actor’s action responds to particularistic logics, and it is not able to guarantee that the rule of law reaches the entire territory, security policies could become an additional source of insecurity. The quality of democracy as a regime and as the rule of law should be considered prior to uncritically copying foreign security policies. It is wise to do so while designing incentives systems for the security sector.