State Capture of and by the Security Services in Serbia

Abstract

State capture is a deliberate political undertaking, the main goal of which is the acquisition of unrestricted state power that in turn enables the unhindered and unsanctioned pursuit of the narrow interests of political elites to the detriment of the public good. Due the very nature of how they are organised and operate, the security services first become targets of these processes, later becoming their principle agents. Indeed, political elites and security services are natural partners in this endeavour, with the very process of state capture coming to resemble a complex intelligence operation. Even though the experiences of many countries bear this out, attempts to research the role of security services in a systematic and theoretically grounded manner remain rare. Using recent theoretical definitions of state capture as a springboard, this study aims to determine the factors, conditions and mechanisms that facilitate the rapid capture of security services and their further use in capturing the state. This will be explored through the example of Serbia – a country that, two decades on from the start of its democratic transformation, is now a captured state sliding towards autocracy.