34America, these gang leaders thus exist apart from, butc<strong>on</strong>nected to, the nati<strong>on</strong>al political settlement, serving as amechanism of indirect rule.Our research points to signs of related dynamics emerging inNepal – though perhaps <strong>on</strong>ly temporarily, given that country’sc<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>al flux. During the civil war, the Maoists taxedillegal logging in areas of their operati<strong>on</strong>s – an illegal enterprisethey still directly engaged in after the civil war in areas aroundcant<strong>on</strong>ments that housed their ex-combatants. 63 Ec<strong>on</strong>omicnecessity – namely, an alleged usurpati<strong>on</strong> of the combatants’salaries by the Maoist party headquarters 64 – may have driventhe illegal logging, while the broader local community hadfew means to oppose the deforestati<strong>on</strong>. Madhesi politicalparties also cultivate particularly str<strong>on</strong>g relati<strong>on</strong>s with criminalgroups in the troubled and neglected Terai regi<strong>on</strong>, w<str<strong>on</strong>g>here</str<strong>on</strong>g>state presence is often minimal. Approximately half of Nepal’s26 milli<strong>on</strong> people live in the Terai. Between 2005 and 2009,many Madhesi armed groups proliferated in the regi<strong>on</strong>, andat their peak in 2008 numbered over <strong>on</strong>e hundred. 65 (Some ofthe groups, however, <strong>on</strong>ly had membership in single digits. 66 )After the end of Nepal’s civil war, the absence of str<strong>on</strong>g politicalparty, campaign financing and asset declarati<strong>on</strong> regulati<strong>on</strong>allowed political actors to exploit these relati<strong>on</strong>ships with localcriminal actors for electoral purposes. In order to dem<strong>on</strong>stratestreet power via bandhs, political parties hire criminal groupsto recruit young men to staff the barricades. The squatterand urban slum communities, in particular, represent primetargets for such bandh recruitment by criminal groups, butpolitical parties also bus rural residents to strike areas for suchpayoffs. Youth wings of political parties extort businesses for“c<strong>on</strong>tributi<strong>on</strong>s” to the political parties, secure public tenders(such as c<strong>on</strong>structi<strong>on</strong> projects) for their network of clientsand party-supported c<strong>on</strong>tractors, and create an atmosp<str<strong>on</strong>g>here</str<strong>on</strong>g>of threat and insecurity to obtain votes and decisi<strong>on</strong>-makingoutcomes favorable to their interests. 67Unlike the situati<strong>on</strong> in Latin America, however, in Nepalpolitical parties, rather than local criminal actors, seem to bethe dominant actor in the political-criminal collaborati<strong>on</strong>. Inboth cases, however, political influence is extended to enclaveareas through cooperati<strong>on</strong> with local criminal groups.T<str<strong>on</strong>g>here</str<strong>on</strong>g> is a key difference between governance anddevelopment within these enclaves themselves andgovernance and development within many other modern,developed states. That difference can be understood interms of the absence, within the enclaves, of the kind ofpolitical deals that Charles Tilly and others have identifiedas the basis for early modern European state development– the deals that were cut between organized violence andproductive capital. 68 Criminal groups in enclaves live notoff the taxati<strong>on</strong> of a productive ec<strong>on</strong>omy based <strong>on</strong> stateprovidedpublic goods (such as justice, roads, educati<strong>on</strong>,and healthcare), but often off the proceeds of organizedcrime, especially its transnati<strong>on</strong>al versi<strong>on</strong>. As a result, theydo not always need to tax local populati<strong>on</strong>s, and in turn d<strong>on</strong>ot need to c<strong>on</strong>struct an open-access system of protecti<strong>on</strong>,or the state instituti<strong>on</strong>s and differentiated bureaucraciesthat have historically characterized such arrangements. 69Instead, the rulers of these enclaves can developgovernance arrangements that are less differentiated,more pers<strong>on</strong>alized, more violent, and more arbitrarily-runthan a developed state’s governmental apparatus. 70 AsVanda Felbab-Brown has shown, they offer just enoughjustice, and just enough pay-offs, to maintain the politicalsupport of the populati<strong>on</strong>s involved. 71 Though the actualhistory of the development of particular modern Europeanstates may not always hew entirely to the Tillyan scheme,the analytical framework does seem to offer some insightsinto understanding the relati<strong>on</strong>ship between productive(legitimate) and criminal capital, <strong>on</strong> the <strong>on</strong>e hand, andcoerci<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> the other.63. Author’s interviews with a high-level Nepal officials in charge of the cant<strong>on</strong>ment oversightand Maoists integrati<strong>on</strong> into the Nepal Army, Kathmandu, May 12, 2012.64. See, for example, Internati<strong>on</strong>al Crisis Group, Nepal’s Peace Process: The Endgame Nears.65. For details <strong>on</strong> their emergence and growth, see Interdisciplinary Analysts, Nepal MadheshFoundati<strong>on</strong>, Small Arms Survey, and Safer World, Armed Violence in the Terai, August 2011.66. For a background <strong>on</strong> these armed groups, see Internati<strong>on</strong>al Crisis Group, Nepal’s TroubledTerai Regi<strong>on</strong>, Asia Report No. 136, July 9, 2007.67. Authors’s interviews with businessmen in Kathmandu, Bharatpur, Nepalganj, and Pokhara,May 2012. See also, Carter <str<strong>on</strong>g>Center</str<strong>on</strong>g>, Clashes between Political Party Youth Wings Have Decreasedbut YCL and UML Youth Force C<strong>on</strong>tinue to Seek Financial Gain, February 28, 2011, http://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/peace_publicati<strong>on</strong>s/democracy/nepal-political-partyyouth-wings-022811-en.pdf.68. Charles Tilly (1985), “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” in Peter Evans (ed.),Bringing the State Back In, Cambridge: Cambridge <strong>University</strong> Press, pp. 169-191; Tilly, Charles(1992), Coerci<strong>on</strong>, Capital and European States, AD 990-1992, Cambridge MA and Oxford UK:Blackwell.69. Douglass North, John Wallis and Barry Weingast (2009), Violence and Social Orders: AC<strong>on</strong>ceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History, <strong>New</strong> <strong>York</strong>: Cambridge <strong>University</strong>Press.70. Paul Jacks<strong>on</strong> (2003), “Warlords as Alternative Forms of Governance,” in Small Wars &Insurgencies, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 131-150; Marten, Kimberly (2006/07), “Warlordism in ComparativePerspective,” in Internati<strong>on</strong>al Security, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 41-73.71. Vanda Felbab-Brown (2009), Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War <strong>on</strong> Drugs,Washingt<strong>on</strong> DC: Brookings Instituti<strong>on</strong> Press.NYUCICResp<strong>on</strong>ding to the Impact of Organized Crime <strong>on</strong> Developing Countries
W<str<strong>on</strong>g>here</str<strong>on</strong>g> criminal enclaves emerge, states often exert c<strong>on</strong>trolover them by mediating enclave str<strong>on</strong>gmen’s accessto transnati<strong>on</strong>al illicit flows. 72 The result is sometimes akind of ‘violent pluralism,’ involving a significant dose ofcriminal activity as we have seen especially in Africa, 73and also Latin America. 74 This has important implicati<strong>on</strong>sfor development interventi<strong>on</strong>s. Development outcomeswithin these territorial and social enclaves may bec<strong>on</strong>trolled as much by local criminal actors as state politicalactors. Development actors must t<str<strong>on</strong>g>here</str<strong>on</strong>g>fore anticipateinteracti<strong>on</strong> with actors implicated in crime, and c<strong>on</strong>siderthe dynamics and implicati<strong>on</strong>s of such engagement.Engagement with such actors can legitimize them, perhapseven at the expense of central state instituti<strong>on</strong>s. Howevera refusal to engage with such actors may, at best, meanthat development actors cannot influence developmentwithin those outcomes. As the Dudus Coke case in Jamaicadem<strong>on</strong>strates, external pressure <strong>on</strong> political actors to turntheir backs <strong>on</strong> local criminal str<strong>on</strong>gmen may even lead toviolence (see Box 2, below).Box 2: The Results of External Pressure <strong>on</strong> thePolitical-Criminal Nexus in JamaicaIn May 2010, under pressure from the US government, formerPrime Minister Bruce Golding ordered Jamaican securityforces to invade the neighborhoods of Denham Town andTivoli Gardens in Kingst<strong>on</strong>, Jamaica’s capital, to execute anarrest warrant for Christopher “Dudus” Coke, the local “d<strong>on</strong>.”Coke was the head of the infamous Shower Posse, a gangthat c<strong>on</strong>trolled sizable porti<strong>on</strong>s of organized crime activity <strong>on</strong>the island and was accused by the United States governmentof drug trafficking and racketeering. Gangsters from aroundthe Kingst<strong>on</strong> area c<strong>on</strong>verged <strong>on</strong> these neighborhoods inan effort to protect Coke who ran a sizable and complexcriminal operati<strong>on</strong> in western Kingst<strong>on</strong>. Residents of thecommunity had turned out several days before to demand thegovernment give up its efforts to bring Coke to justice. Facedwith c<strong>on</strong>siderable and well-organized armed oppositi<strong>on</strong>,72. William Reno (1998), Warlord Politics and African States, Boulder CO and L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>: LynneRienner, pp. 8-10.73. Jean-François Bayart, Bayart, Stephen Ellis, and Beatrice Hibou (2009). The Criminalizati<strong>on</strong> ofthe State in Africa, Bloomingt<strong>on</strong>: Indiana <strong>University</strong> Press; Reno, William (2009), “Illicit Commerce inPeripheral States,” in H. R. Friman (ed.), Crime and the Global Political Ec<strong>on</strong>omy, Boulder, CO: LynneRienner, pp. 67-84.74. Desm<strong>on</strong>d Enrique Arias (2010), “Understanding Criminal Networks, Political Order, andPolitics in Latin America,” in Anne L. Clunan and Harold A. Trinkunas (eds.), Ungoverned Spaces:Alternatives to State Authority in an Era of Softened Sovereignty, Stanford CA: Stanford SecurityStudies, an Imprint of Stanford <strong>University</strong> Press, pp. 115-135.Golding warned residents to evacuate. On 28th May, troopsentered the area and carried out an operati<strong>on</strong> that killed some70 residents.These events represented the culminati<strong>on</strong> of eight m<strong>on</strong>ths ofintense political and diplomatic wrangling following a requestby the United States government for Coke’s extraditi<strong>on</strong>. TheGolding government had d<strong>on</strong>e everything in its power andmore to avoid arresting Coke, including hiring a US-basedlaw firm to lobby the Obama Administrati<strong>on</strong> to withdrawits request. When Golding’s attempt to evade Jamaica’sinternati<strong>on</strong>al treaty obligati<strong>on</strong>s came to light, the country’spolitical establishment shuddered. Golding resigned as leaderof the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), potentially opening thedoor to new electi<strong>on</strong>s. His party, however, refused to accepthis resignati<strong>on</strong> and the administrati<strong>on</strong> staggered <strong>on</strong>wards.The US government found innovative ways to pressure hisgovernment, including cancelling the US visa of prominent JLPsupporters, t<str<strong>on</strong>g>here</str<strong>on</strong>g>by creating significant business difficultiesand embarrassment for a porti<strong>on</strong> of the Jamaican elite.Ultimately, the violent military incursi<strong>on</strong> into Kingst<strong>on</strong> Westernwas unsuccessful in that Coke managed to escape. But withno place to hide, he so<strong>on</strong> surrendered and was extradited tothe US. He pled guilty to racketeering charges in a <strong>New</strong> <strong>York</strong>court and in June 2012 received a maximum pris<strong>on</strong> sentenceof 23 years. 75 Golding, <strong>on</strong> the other hand, offered exempti<strong>on</strong>from prosecuti<strong>on</strong> to other prominent gang leaders acrossKingst<strong>on</strong> in exchange for relative peace. Lower violence ratesin late 2010 and early 2011 testify to those arrangements. The<strong>on</strong>ly powerful figure to suffer from the Coke debacle in theimmediate term was Attorney General and Justice MinisterDorothy Lightbourne who was forced to step down. Goldingand his party went <strong>on</strong> to lose the general electi<strong>on</strong>s.The Mafia ScenarioThe sec<strong>on</strong>d analytical ‘ideal type’ is <strong>on</strong>e we describe as a‘mafia scenario’. In the mafia scenario an organized criminalgroup’s political power flows not from its m<strong>on</strong>opoly ofviolence in a defined territorial space (though it may enjoyc<strong>on</strong>siderable influence or even c<strong>on</strong>trol); rather, a mafia’spower flows from the relative absence of the state fromcriminal markets. Organized crime groups wield power75. “Dudus gets his due,” The Ec<strong>on</strong>omist, June 13, 2012, http://www.ec<strong>on</strong>omist.com/blogs/americasview/2012/06/ organised-crime-jamaica35Resp<strong>on</strong>ding to the Impact of Organized Crime <strong>on</strong> Developing CountriesNYUCIC
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