The Politics of the Mexican State: Informal Power and Failed State Politics in the Struggle against the Cartels

This paper is intended to provide an analysis of the narco-political experience in the United States-Mexico border region and the informal power structure that rises through illegitimate economic processes. Most studies fail to analyze the Mexican state and its ability or inability to exercise state power, which calls into question the legitimacy of the state. I believe that this research is not completely unexplored, but there is no definitive unit of analysis for the current situation. I would like to develop a concise paper with a conclusion on power and the health of the Mexican state today, and into the future. The objective of this research project is to examine the specific role of the state and power structures in Mexico and propose a theoretical application of the theory of failed states. The central hypothesis is the following; “If Mexico is a failed state, does the Mexican state play a lesser role to the informal power of the cartels?” This research explores a diversity of resources including current scholarship, newspaper accounts, and government documents with the goal of developing a concise analytical approach in the study of state power and the rise of criminal organizations as an oppositional power center. This paper is exploratory in nature and the hypotheses will be tested through research and application of raw data and the application of political theories on power