This book argues that the interaction between urban political economies and patterns of armed territorial control shape the nature and trajectory of the ways in which developing world cities confront the challenge of urban violence. The study introduces business as a pivotal actor in the politics of urban violence, and shows that private sector mobilization can either support or subvert state efforts to stem and prevent urban violence and, more broadly, urban governance. The effects that private sector mobilization have on the institutional outcomes of the politics of urban violence are contin ... More

This book argues that the interaction between urban political economies and patterns of armed territorial control shape the nature and trajectory of the ways in which developing world cities confront the challenge of urban violence. The study introduces business as a pivotal actor in the politics of urban violence, and shows that private sector mobilization can either support or subvert state efforts to stem and prevent urban violence and, more broadly, urban governance. The effects that private sector mobilization have on the institutional outcomes of the politics of urban violence are contingent on how business communities are institutionally configured within cities and the nature of their relations with political actors and parties. A focus on city mayors finds that the degree to which politicians rely upon clientelism to secure and maintain power weighs heavily on whether they favor responses to violence that perpetuate or weaken exclusionary local political orders. The book builds a new typology of patterns of armed territorial control within cities, each of which poses challenges and opportunities for sustaining distinct political projects in response to urban violence. To demonstrate the framework’s analytic utility the book develops subnational comparative analyses of variation in the institutional outcomes of the politics of urban violence across Colombia’s three principal cities –Medellin, Cali, and Bogota –and over time within each. The analysis shows that the politics of urban violence is a powerful new lens on the broader question of who governs in major developing world cities.