Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
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.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
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
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
Book Title: Gangster States
Book Subtitle: Organized Crime, Kleptocracy and Political Collapse
Authors: Katherine Hirschfeld
Series Title: International Political Economy Series
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137490292
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Intern. Relations & Development Collection, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2015
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-49028-5Published: 06 February 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-50436-7Published: 01 January 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-49029-2Published: 09 February 2015
Series ISSN: 2662-2483
Series E-ISSN: 2662-2491
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 176
Topics: International Political Economy, Economic Policy, Political Science, International Relations, Development Economics, Organized Crime