Violence diffusion, illegal accumulation and norms of criminal authority: alternative configurations of politics and power in the 21st century?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This Commentary explores whether the essays in this volume and other evidence, require us to rethink our social science tools in order to grasp the significance of criminal penetration of politics and crimes of the State for our understanding of politics and power. Using the classic Weberian lens, it problematises the extent to which Weber’s key concepts of ‘violence monopolisation’, ‘legality’, ‘legitimacy’ and ‘territory’ enable us to comprehend political and state trajectories in those countries where crime and violence are ever more diffused (and organised) outside the State, in war, non-war and post war contexts.