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  • © 2015

Gangster States

Organized Crime, Kleptocracy and Political Collapse

Palgrave Macmillan

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series (IPES)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
  2. Introduction

    • Katherine Hirschfeld
    Pages 1-22
  3. What Is Organized Crime?

    • Katherine Hirschfeld
    Pages 23-37
  4. Failing Economics

    • Katherine Hirschfeld
    Pages 38-48
  5. The Evolution of Racketeering

    • Katherine Hirschfeld
    Pages 49-67
  6. Organized Crime and Kleptocracy

    • Katherine Hirschfeld
    Pages 68-103
  7. Things Fall Apart … and Rebuild

    • Katherine Hirschfeld
    Pages 104-121
  8. Darwinian Political Economy

    • Katherine Hirschfeld
    Pages 122-128
  9. Back Matter

    Pages 129-176

About this book

The author draws on behavioral ecology to predict the evolution of organized crime in unregulated systems of exchange and the further development of racketeer economies into unstable kleptocratic states. The result is a new model that explains the expansion and contraction of political-economic complexity in prehistoric and contemporary societies.

Reviews

“Hirschfeld … has produced a gem of a work that is both multidisciplinary in its approach and intellectually seductive. Within the context of traditional organized crime studies, its amoral analytics may be viewed as highly disruptive–almost heretical–in nature. Contrarian and well executed works such as this should be greatly valued for their ‘out of the box’ perspectives and ability to shake up what can at times become an insular and dogmatic discipline.” (Robert J. Bunker, Trends in Organized Crime, June, 2016)

"This innovative and engaging book provides ananthropologist's assessment of some of the problems besetting much of the developing world." - Robert I. Rotberg, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 2015, 49(6)

“Gangster States is a gem, an intellectually exhilarating synthesis of political anthropology, political economy, and Darwinian evolutionary theory. The result is a concise, elegant argument that makes the scales drop from our eyes, regarding not only gangs like the Mafia and Mexican drug cartels, but the origins of the state, the vulnerability of democracies to racketeering, and the relentless reemergence of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram. In effect we go from gang to state and back again. In place of the partial approaches of neoliberal economics and conventional political anthropology, Hirschfeld offers a comprehensive and powerful new theory of organized politics as organized crime. It is a theory we ignore at our peril.” (Melvin Konner, Emory University, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Oklahoma, USA

    Katherine Hirschfeld

About the author

Katherine Hirschfeld is an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, USA. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Emory University in 2001. Her research interests include the political economy of health, disease ecology and post-Soviet transitions. Among her previous publications figures the monograph Health, Politics and Revolution in Cuba since 1898 (2007).

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access