La présente recherche étudie le déploiement de la domination hiérarchique de l’Etat mexicain dans ses espaces territoriaux au niveau local. Elle se concentre sur le cas de l’état fédéré du Yucatán. Dans l’ordonnancement politico-administratif des états fédérés du Mexique, on insère progressivement une figure intermédiaire entre le gouverneur et les municipalités, le jefe político, insertion parachevée dans le dernier quart du XIXème siècle. Celui-ci est, d’une part, l’agent de l’autorité étatique au niveau départemental (partidos) et, d’autre part, l’intermédiaire formel entre l’exécutif, les municipalités et la société, caisse de résonance des demandes locales. La bipolarité de la charge et sa nature foncièrement relationnelle permettent d’examiner l’imbrication, plutôt que l’opposition entre déploiement étatique et réalités non étatiques dans la construction de l’Etat mexicain au niveau local, afin d’élucider la spécificité de cet Etat et d’expliciter les mécanismes par lesquels le régime porfirien a pu se pérenniser en s’adaptant aux réalités socio-politiques existantes tout en les mettant à son service. / This research studies the establishment of the hierarchical power of the Mexican State in its territories on the local scale. It focuses on the case study of the federated state of Yucatán. An intermediary civil official, the jefe político is introduced step by step between the governor and the municipal powers, this institution is achieved during the last quarter of the 19th century. He is, on the one hand, the agent of the state authority in the partidos (districts) and, on the other hand, the official intermediary between the executive power, the municipal authorities and the society, as the voice of the local requests. This double-acting office, essentially based on public relations, enables us to analyze the imbrications rather than the contrasts between the State establishment and the non-state powers in the Mexican State building, in order to clear up the specific character of the Mexican State and to explain the mechanisms by which the porfirian government could last in time by adapting to the existent socio-political actors and by using them into its service.

During the last half of the nineteenth century, Mexico City residents started to experience an increase in the frequency and intensity of fires. Residents cited the presence of fossil fuels, the introduction of large factories and electrical apparatuses, and the growing population density as the primary reasons that urban fires became more prevalent. Fire hazards acted as catalysts for social change in Mexico's capital. They created a ripple effect across society, altering everything from city planning to medical advancements to business endeavors, shaping the ways that people experienced a period of significant urban growth. Fire forced people to adjust the ways that they lived their lives, the ways that they conducted business, and the ways that they thought about their city. Rather than looking at one great fire, this study contributes to a growing branch of disaster studies that examines the effects of much smaller, but far more frequent hazards. By drawing on the experiences of residents from different social groups (business owners, firemen, engineers, city officials, entrepreneurs, insurance agents, and physicians), this study shows how residents reacted differently to fire and how they feared and coped with the nearly constant presence of risk. Prevailing historiography of this time period in Mexico is often characterized by studies of the top-down projects of the dictator Porfirio Diaz, but this project shows how social actors collectively transformed their city in response to an environmental threat.

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