Between Security and Democracy: Understanding the Rise of Mano Dura Policies in Traditionally Safe Latin American States

Cutrona, Sebastian and Malone, Mary and Dammert, Lucia and Rosen, Jonathan (2026) Between Security and Democracy: Understanding the Rise of Mano Dura Policies in Traditionally Safe Latin American States. Global Crime. pp. 1-33. ISSN 1744-0572

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Abstract

This article explores growing support for mano dura (iron-fist) policies in four historically safe Latin American democracies: Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Uruguay. Through 32 focus groups with 259 participants, we find that mano dura narratives are popular, but cross-national variations are sharp. Ecuador shows the strongest support for extreme, often extralegal measures, whereas participants in Uruguay favor an institutional “law and order” approach. Chile and Costa Rica occupy a middle ground, with contested trust in mano dura. We argue that two factors condition the intensity and form of support: (1) perceptions of institutional fragility and (2) the availability of social scapegoats—dynamics embedded within deeper historical legacies. These comparative findings reveal a reality with implications beyond Latin America: insecurity can fuel mano dura’s appeal even in stable democracies, but robust institutions can curb its most extreme manifestations.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	© 2026 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Business, Law and Criminology > School of Law and Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	RISE Symplectic
Depositing User:	RISE Symplectic
Date Deposited:	22 May 2026 09:03
Last Modified:	22 May 2026 09:49
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4902

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