Criminal Clusters: State and Organised Crime in a Globalised World

Organized Crime (OC) is the label given to self-perpetuating, structured groups of individuals who use violence to gain profit through criminal activities. They are now eroding State power and penetrating legitimate businesses more effectively and efficiently than any other non-state actors (such as terrorists and private military corporations). This paper explores OC's evolution in this new globalized world and calls for new research into the State's relationship with OC. The first section briefly reconstructs the genesis of the modern State in order to analyze how globalization has caused an inversion in the process of state-building which has offered new and unexpected opportunities for OC groups. The second section analyses OC power structures, highlighting the aspects which make these groups privileged partners of capitalism. The last section represents an initial attempt at elaborating a model for analyzing OC groups based on two variables drawn from the literature on industrial clusters: the degree of structurization and life cycles.