BELGRADE – SERBIA
400+ participants / 50+ speakers / 15+ panels
BSC2022
27-28 OCTOBER
Day 2
15:45 – 16:45
Democracies Held to Ransom: Organized Crime and Authoritarianism
Organized criminal groups seem to perform at their best in democratic countries. More recent research shows that, owing to their non-democratic and authoritarian nature, they also work well with more corrupt and tyrannical regimes.
Charles Tilly argued the difference between war and state-making, on the one hand, and organized crime, on the other, was merely in legitimacy bestowed on the former. If war, crime and state-building are so intricately connected, how can we address the challenges posed by transnational organized crime in a world of rising authoritarianism and international conflict?
Our panel looks at the role of organized criminal groups in places like Donbas, Western Balkans and wider Europe, investigating the links between war, crime and state-building and discussing whether democratization is a viable prospect under these challenging conditions.
