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State Capture and the Destruction of Bureaucratic Apparatuses: Empirical, Conceptual and Comparative Perspectives

Sat, November 22, 4:00 to 5:45pm EST (4:00 to 5:45pm EST), -

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

State Capture and the Destruction of Bureaucratic Apparatuses:
Empirical, Conceptual and Comparative Perspectives

The roundtable discussion will focus on a vibrant and expanding research program: the study of state capture and the attendant selective destruction of bureaucratic entities. After 1989 it became clear that the well-organized groups and well-connected networks that emerged as powerful political players in the former “second world” could easily hijack formal decision-making procedures in order to promote private interests; such players also tried to systematically flatten organizational landscapes and thus facilitate the unimpeded exercise of political power. The rise of populist parties and leaders in the early 21st century gave a further impetus to such analyses: electorally successful populist politicians eagerly deployed the majoritarian power they could now wield in order to extinguish the relative autonomy of key state apparatuses and dismantle strategically important components of the administrative infrastructure.
It is our objective to take stock of recent developments related to the ongoing debates about state captures and bureaucratic demolitions. Our discussion will revolve around in-depth expert accounts of recent changes in several East European countries. But we will also address more general topics: what are the novel empirical trends and patterns which such scholarly exchanges about state capture should cover? What are the conceptual and/or methodological issues to which these developments give rise? And how should we adjust the comparative matrixes we currently deploy in order to gain a firmer grasp of the trans-regional and global dimensions of the postcommunist transformations we study?
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