Handbook of Organised Crime and Politics

"This multidisciplinary Handbook examines the interactions that develop between organised crime groups and politics across the globe. This exciting original collection highlights the difficulties involved in researching such relationships and shines a new light on how they evolve to become pervasive and destructive. This new Handbook brings together a unique group of international academics from sociology, criminology, political science, anthropology, European and international studies." Front Matter Copyright Contents List of figures List of tables List of contributors Foreword: organised crime and its relationship with politics as seen from Italy Acknowledgements Introduction to the Handbook of Organised Crime and Politics Part I: Europe 1 France: criminal organisations, urban gangs and politics 2 Sweden: organised crime, politics and civil society 3 Germany: ‘Ndrangheta, settlements and democracy 4 Italy: politics, local government and mafias 5 Western Balkans: organised crime, political corruption and oligarchs 6 Ukraine: organised crime, politics and frozen conflicts 7 Bulgaria: organised crime, private security and the state post-1989 8 Post-Soviet Eurasia: organised crime, variations and political corruption 9 Russia: a mafia state, politics and shifting power dynamics Part II: The Americas 10 United States of America I: organised crime, public corruption and a downward trend? 11 United States of America II: organised crime, political corruption and illicit enterprise 12 Canada: internal conspiracies ‒ corruption and crime 13 Mexico: politics, cartels and violence 14 Brazil: organised crime, corruption and urban violence 15 Guatemala: organised crime, fraud and politics 16 Colombia: organised crime, politics, and convenience Part III: Africa 17 Kenya: organised crime, political linkages and violence 18 North Africa: organised crime, the Sahel‒Sahara region and state (un)making 19 Sierra Leone: political‒criminal alliances, democracy and the avoidance of state capture 20 South Africa: origins of the mafia state ‒ political transition, organised crime and the impact on democracy 21 Nigeria: black gold, suits and brown envelopes Part IV: Eurasia 22 Australia: organised crime, donations and political assassinations 23 New Zealand: patched gangs, police and political corruption 24 India: systemic criminality, work and the politics of labour 25 China: the ‘red‒black nexus’, organised crime and politics 26 Malaysia: gangster boogie, bosses and politics 27 The Pacific Islands: politics, organised crime and corruption Part V: International Organisations 28 The European Union: organised crime policies, politics and the EU 29 The Financial Action Task Force: fighting transnational organised crime, money laundering, and the limits of experimentalist governance 30 The United Nations: organised crime on the agenda of the United Nations Index This multidisciplinary Handbook examines the complex and often hidden relationship between organised crime and politics across the globe, highlighting the difficulties involved in researching such relationships and offering new insights into how they evolve to become pervasive and destructive.Organised into five distinct sections, key chapters focus on issues and case studies from across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Eurasia and international organisations in order to provide a new and systematic picture and analysis of what the relationship between criminal organisations and politics looks like in different national contexts. In so doing, it offers an insight into the ever-evolving nature of this relationship, and the exchanges within it, in order to identify common features and key differences. These in turn raise provoking questions regarding the possibility of improving democracy, political systems, civil society and economic systems in order to counter the possible infiltration of these organisations, their associates and representatives. Students and scholars of public policy, politics, criminology and those focussing on organised crime more specifically will find this Handbook an original and engaging guide to the current state of play, whilst policy makers, practitioners and NGOs will find the case studies set in national context eminently valuable.Contributors include: S. Adorno, F. Allum, J. Arsovska, M. Beare, M. Bedetti, G. Borrelli, S. Brady, D. Bright, J.-L. Briquet, A. Chung, N. Dalponte, A. De Vos, C.N. Dias, S. Dinnen, G. Favarel-Garrigues, J. Gilbert, S. Gilmour, C. Gunnarson, E. Gutterman, C. Hemmings, A. Idler, D. Islas, J. Janssens, S. Jeperson, M. Joutsen, A. Kupatadze, R. Le Cour Grandmaison, S. Lemière, A. Markovska, V. Mete, S. Musau, A. Orlova, I. Roberge, A. Rostami, D. Silverstone, M. Shaw, D. Smith Jr., F. Strazzari, M. Tzvetkova, C. van Ham, G. Walton, J. Wheatley, J. Whittle, Y. Zabyelina, G. Zanoletti This multidisciplinary Handbook examines the complex and often hidden relationship between organised crime and politics across the globe, highlighting the difficulties involved in researching such relationships and offering new insights into how they evolve to become pervasive and destructive. Exploring the ever-evolving nature of this relationship, and the exchanges within it, in order to identify common features and key differences, engaging chapters raise provoking questions regarding the possibility of improving democracy, political systems, civil society and economic systems in order to counter the possible infiltration of these organisations, their associates and representatives. Students and scholars of public policy, politics, criminology and those focusing on organised crime more specifically will find this Handbook an original and engaging guide to the current state of play, whilst policy-makers, practitioners and NGOs will find the case studies set in national contexts eminently valuable