Abstract
Political violence occurs across all spectrums of nations, in all periods of history. Nevertheless, it is very important in transitions to electoral democracy because it can impair the full achievement of the consolidation of a multiparty system (Fein 1995; Gurr 1986; Muller 1985). In this regard, it is significant when the level of violence is extreme, when political killings are involved and these political killings are systematic and pervasive. This could indicate a real fracture or a problem on the road to democracy (Davenport 1998). In this respect, the case of Mexico is of significant interest because we have two elements. First, and on the one hand, the Mexican case represents a struggle to achieve full electoral democracy. And, on the other, it is characterized by targeted, systematic extreme violence, namely killings of the opposition party.
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Schatz, S. (2011). Introduction. In: Murder and Politics in Mexico. Studies of Organized Crime, vol 10. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8068-7_1
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