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A DUAL COUNTRY

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  A DUAL COUNTRY Short-term orientation, distrust of institutions, the centrality of informal networks, and ambivalence toward legality can no longer be understood as cultural traits specific to marginalized sectors. Above all, they are rational responses to a fragmented social order, now widespread across much of Peruvian society. The key to understanding this phenomenon lies in the very structure of the country. Peru increasingly functions as a dual system, where a formal State—legal, institutional, and often ineffective—coexists with a network of de facto powers that organize economic and social life across vast territories. In this context, informality ceases to be an anomaly and becomes the norm, while illegality emerges as an organic component of economic accumulation. Distrust of the State can no longer be interpreted as a mere cultural prejudice, but rather as the result of repeated experiences of corruption, neglect, and arbitrariness. Community networks, in turn, perform ...
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PERU'S DEINSTITUCIONALIZATION DEEPENS

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  Peru’s Deinstitutionalization Deepens By Silvio Dragunsky Peru’s crisis no longer appears to be limited to a crisis of government or political leadership. What is now beginning to be questioned is the very capacity of the institutional system to socially integrate a country increasingly fragmented between formality and informality, legality and illegality, the State and parallel economies. In previous articles, I argued that Peru’s institutional crisis is not merely a political phenomenon, but rather the superstructural consequence of the emergence of a new social actor: what, for lack of a more precise definition, we may call “the informal sector.” The 2026 presidential elections probably constitute the clearest expression of this process. The Growing Weight of “the Informals” In Peru, it is often repeated that barely 30% of the Economically Active Population has formal employment and full labor-law protection. However, this statement is usually made without considering its logi...
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LA DESINSTITUCIONALIZACION DEL PERU SE PROFUNDIZA

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  La desinstitucionalización del Perú se profundiza Escribe: Silvio Dragunsky La crisis peruana ya no parece limitarse a una crisis de gobierno o de liderazgo político. Lo que comienza a ponerse en cuestión es la capacidad misma del sistema institucional para integrar socialmente a un país cada vez más fragmentado entre formalidad e informalidad, legalidad e ilegalidad, Estado y economías paralelas En artículos anteriores sostuve que la crisis institucional peruana no es un fenómeno meramente político, sino la consecuencia superestructural de la emergencia de un nuevo actor social: aquello que, por falta de una definición más precisa, podemos llamar “los informales”. Las elecciones presidenciales de 2026 constituyen, probablemente, la expresión más acabada de este proceso. El peso creciente de “los informales” En Perú suele repetirse que apenas el 30% de la Población Económicamente Activa cuenta con empleo formal y cobertura plena de la legislación laboral. La afirmació...
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UN PAIS DUAL

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    UN PAÍS DUAL La orientación al corto plazo, la desconfianza hacia las instituciones, la centralidad de redes informales y la ambivalencia frente a la legalidad ya no pueden entenderse como atributos culturales propios de sectores excluidos. Son, ante todo, respuestas racionales a un orden social fragmentado, hoy ampliamente extendidas en buena parte de la sociedad peruana. La clave para comprender este fenómeno reside en la estructura misma del país. El Perú funciona crecientemente como un sistema dual, donde coexisten un Estado formal —legal, institucional y muchas veces ineficaz— y un entramado de poderes fácticos que organizan la vida económica y social en vastos territorios. En ese marco, la informalidad deja de ser una anomalía para convertirse en norma, y la ilegalidad pasa a ser un componente orgánico de la acumulación económica. La desconfianza en el Estado ya no puede ser leída como un simple prejuicio cultural, sino como el resultado de experiencias rei...
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THE NEW CABINET AS A SYMPTOM: MANAGING THE COEXISTENCE OF TWO STATES

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  The New Cabinet as a Symptom: Managing the Coexistence of Two States The recent formation of a new cabinet clearly reflects the prevailing logic within the political system: the management of a structural duality that the State itself has been unable to resolve. The latest cabinet reshuffle in Peru does not represent an attempt to reorganize power or restore state authority. On the contrary, it clearly expresses the dominant logic of the political system: the administration of a structural duality that the State itself has failed to overcome. In a country where a formal State—legal, normative, institutional—coexists with a real State—informal, illegal, and territorially fragmented—the cabinet does not emerge as an instrument of transformation, but rather as a mechanism for maintaining a fragile balance between these two dimensions. The appointment of a ministerial team lacking strong political backing of its own, marked by high turnover in the Office of the Prime Minister and...
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EL NUEVO GABINETE COMO SÍNTOMA: ADMINISTRAR LA COEXISTENCIA DE DOS ESTADOS

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  El nuevo gabinete como síntoma: administrar la coexistencia de dos Estados La reciente conformación de un nuevo gabinete expresa con claridad la lógica predominante en el sistema político: la administración de una dualidad estructural que el propio Estado ha sido incapaz de resolver. La reciente conformación del gabinete en Perú no representa un intento de reordenamiento del poder ni de recuperación de la autoridad estatal. Por el contrario, expresa con claridad la lógica predominante en el sistema político: la administración de una dualidad estructural que el propio Estado ha sido incapaz de resolver. En un país donde coexisten un Estado formal —legal, normativo, institucional— y otro Estado real —informal, ilegal, territorialmente fragmentado—, el gabinete no aparece como instrumento de transformación, sino como mecanismo de equilibrio precario entre ambas dimensiones. La designación de un equipo ministerial sin fuerte respaldo político propio, con alta rotación en la P...
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THE POLITICAL DEGRADATION OF PERU AND THE ILLEGAL ECONOMY

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  The Political Degradation of Peru and the Illegal Economy By Silvio Dragunsky Introduction: the illegal economy and political crisis The political degradation of Peru is inseparable from the sustained growth of the illegal economy and from the culture it has ultimately imposed. In Peruvian public debate, a question charged with moral bewilderment is repeatedly asked: how is it possible that Congress keeps getting worse and that the country elects, time and again, improvised presidents? The usual answers point to voter ignorance, flaws in constitutional design, or an alleged ethical decay of politics. This article proposes a different—and less comforting—hypothesis: Peru’s political degradation is inseparable from the sustained growth of the illegal economy and the culture it has come to impose. Over recent decades, Peru has experienced a persistent deterioration of its political life and, particularly visibly, of the quality of its congresses. Extreme fragmentation, the vol...
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