At the intersection of politics, the state, and society, a significant part of the research agenda addresses questions of regulation and law enforcement from an economic and political sociology perspective.
The study of state law enforcement in Latin America has recently sparked important debates, challenging the widespread assumption in the social sciences that governments and officials are inherently interested in enforcing the law. This assumption often explains cases of non-enforcement through the weakness of state institutions or sheer corruption.
The research highlights an alternative explanation for both legal and illegal markets: governments may be unwilling to enforce the law because they pursue interests that require non-enforcement.
