The article analyzes sub-national democratization from the perspective of the state and its police power. We argue that in the police forces of some Argentine provinces the uses of bureaucracies created during the dictatorship to control citizens, the police information department (PID) for example, can become an obstacle for the institutionalization of democracy. Based on a case study, the “juarismo” in Santiago del Estero, we describe the provincial state police power
revealed in the functions and prerrogatives of police and its intelligence agency, and examine its uses between 1995 and 2004.