Mini-Conference on Democracy and Organized Crime: Democracy, Political (In)stability, and Organized Crime

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Part of Mini-Conference

• Mini-Conference on Democracy and Organized Crime

Session Description

Our first panel examines how criminal groups influence democratic politics and the consequences of doing so. While democracy can hold officials accountable, it can also be exploited by criminal groups to influence who enters office and what policies are put in place. Further, democratic transitions of power can also be destabilizing to the ties between local officials and criminal groups. This panel examines the dynamics between democracy and organized crime, from the introduction of electoral changes and post-democratic reforms to shifts in state capacity and leadership. The papers here examine the effects on violence, criminal activities, state stability and capacity, and policy choices. This panel encompasses theoretically and empirically rigorous works, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, original data, interviews, and extensive documentation, in studies from across the globe, including Mexico, Kenya, Ecuador, and Brazil. Together, these papers draw a unique understanding of the complex relationship between democracy and organized crime.

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Individual Presentations

• Mobilizing to Prevent Election Violence: Evidence from Kenya - Megan Turnbull, University of Georgia

• Relational State Capacity and Criminal Violence: Ecuador’s Security Crisis - Angelica Duran-Martinez, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

• The Political Determinants of Violence against Environmental Defenders - Mariana Carvalho, Brown University

• Defending the Status Quo? How Reelection Shapes Criminal Collusion in Mexico - Adee Weller, Emory University

Chair

• Omar Garcia-Ponce George Washington University

Discussants

• Javier Osorio University of Arizona

• Julian Gerez Columbia University