A Social Trap?: Coercive Institutions and Local Rights in Recife, Brazil.

What determines the deployment of coercion in Brazil's cities, and how does variation in public security affect local rights? Starting with the concept of a security community, this paper analyzes policing in the city of Recife, seeking to explain is violent and contested nature. The paper argues that the latter is best explained by a combination of extremeeconomic deprivation and inequality, the nature of electoral competition, and the peculiar characteristics of coercive institutions in the city and the state. The paper concludes that the relations in Recife between police forces, other state institutions, and civil society groups appear to resemble what Rothstein calls a "social trap". ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]