Narco-capitalism is a pejorative

Pejorative

Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...

 neologism meant to express criticism of a state's policies and practices surrounding the international illegal drug trade

Illegal drug trade

The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...

. The terms narco-capitalism and narco-state currently have no formal definition in official use and are not in the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

. It is a pejorative term meant to criticize and express disfavor about a government's drug policies; no state calls itself a narco-state as a neutral descriptor — thus, who uses the term, and in what context, is significant to understanding its intended meaning.

External links

• The Economics of Cocaine Capitalism