Critical Bibliography - Book Report/Review Example

Critical Bibliography Critical Bibliography crime: Governments, violence and corruption By Penny Green and Tony Ward London, Pluto, 2004.  255 pages  Paperbacks: $75.00. This reading is critical since George and Ward (2004) effectively classify the issue of state crime as a form of institutional deviance, which encompasses, among others, the violations of human rights. Such violations are facilitated and simultaneously committed by proto-states or sovereign states in order to achieve institutionally established objectives. However, the book does not provide any unique conceptualization regarding the issue of state crime. As a consequence, the book can be considered as a standard, introductory text, which has a myriad of fascinating topics for exploration, albeit with little depth. Notably, however, while the account of state-led crime unfolds throughout the reading, the authors alter the aforementioned conception. Although Ward and Green emphasize the link between the political economy and selection through organizational means, they also skillfully direct attention to a comprehensive framework that deals with social and psychological factors. The central argument inherent in the book is well demonstrated through the assessment of a vast array of state-led crimes. In essence, the authors primarily aim at demonstrating that no single state is exempt from the violation of human rights; all with a view to attaining its inherent objectives and missions. Throughout the book, the authors argue that the form of crime actively chosen is largely determined by certain structural conditions. With this in mind, the authors start off with a comprehensive examination of the topic of corruption, as well as two vital explanatory notions namely patrimonialism and clientelism. In addition to providing definitions for the two terms, Green and Ward also affirm the manner in which the two conceptions operate effectively in conjunction with bureaucratic governments. For instance, the authors effectively define clientelism as the exchange system in which public officials or patrons offer political favors to their constituents or clients. With regard to the application of clientelism in bureaucratic governments, Green and Ward affirm that clientelism serves as an opportunity for clandestine interactions, which culminate in the violation of human rights. The book essentially provides a crude depiction of how police crime, state-corporate crime, state-organized crime, as well as other forms of deviant behaviors often accompany clientelism. In addition to affirming how state violence occurs, Green and Ward unmistakably purport that citizenry governed by clientelist governments typically conform to such systems, thereby making such forms of deviance inherently unnecessary. Conversely, Green and Ward offer an in-depth definition for patrimonialism as a system that is crudely inviting towards violent forms of state-based corruption. Through their use of this terminology, the authors draw from Weber’s definition of societies that profit immensely from corruption, which is an organizational-state goal. Green and Ward provide an extensive review of available literature to show how the two klepocracies in which the interests and wellbeing of the ruler and the nation are conflated, there is always an opportunity for all levels of corruption such as state terror, genocide, war crimes and torture. In order to further exemplify their point, the authors use evidence from case studies to affirm that the possibility that a state will show evidence of patrimonialism or undignified clientelism. Through such engagement, states participate in the perpetuation of specific state crimes. However, Green and Ward offer a caveat for the perpetuation of these crimes. They poise that the likelihood of states engaging in various state crimes is primarily determined by the prevailing economic and political factors. Perhaps more specifically, Green and Ward suggest that states based on the capitalistic system having robust democracies are likely to encounter clientelism. On the other hand, the authors purport that civic enthusiasm in government deters the advancement of patrimonalism, as well as the state’s utilization of extensive force. Green and Ward use the examples of the development of transitional capitalistic democracies, for instance, Brazil and Russia, to paint the portrait of how state crimes differ significantly. However, the text gives special attention to the function of the international community in terms of influencing state behaviors such as crimes. For instance, the role of global financial systems, as well as international debt is the fostering and development of incentives to implement deviant organizational approaches. However, the authors consider these states as being extremely susceptible to corruption on account of the weakness of a vast majority of civic associations. On the other hand, Green and Ward appear to concede that both predatory and state-capitalistic states are the most prominent egregious violators of basic human rights. The authors argue that in state-capitalistic states, the state possesses and has control of all means of production. Additionally, such systems are often likely to make use of state terror, as well as violence to keep hold of power. The examples provided to affirm this stance are quite applicable on account of historical occurrences. For instance, Green and Ward give the examples of Cambodia, modern China and the former USSR. History affirms the authors’ stance regarding the aforementioned state-capitalist governments since all used terror in order to sustain power. Green and Ward label certain states and proto-states as warlords that have international sovereignty. These states, according to the authors can be classified as some of the worst state offenders and predatory states. In the text, the authors refer to predatory or patrimonial states as predominantly former colonial protectorates. This is not necessarily a coincidence since colonial powers guaranteed that nations in the colonial protectorates’ spectrum of control had policing and military structures. However, post-colonial economic policies fail to foster the establishment and development of economic environments or democratic practices. The authors’ theoretical insights delineate state crime more effectively than a vast majority of introductory text and tailor the insights to upper-division, as well as graduate level courses. However, the work needs to be praised for its timely and rich illustrations of various sub-groups of state crimes. Through various chapters, the book effectively describes state-corporate crime, state terror, police crime, war crimes and genocide. All the chapters appear to accomplish two primary objectives. Firstly, they concisely outline the breadth of all forms of institutional deviance while also encouraging readers to investigate issues regarding state crime, which go beyond the extent of the text. For instance, the fifth chapter provides an intriguing consideration of police crimes, as well as stories regarding police corruption across the globe. The book encourages critical thinkers to take into consideration the manner in which organizational, social psychological and structural conditions typically intersect to injure economically cast out, mentally ill and populations that abuse drugs since these populations are forced to deal with police brutality and crime on a constant basis. Secondly, the authors offer a basis for the societal responses to deterring acts of violence perpetrated by the state. One of the most impressive aspects of the book is that it explores the issue of natural disasters, which are often ignored in texts describing governmental deviance. Overall, the book is an excellent read, particularly for people who appreciate the complexity of governmental deviance and seek to examine the topic for various angles. Frontiers and Ghettos. State violence in Serbia and Israel James Ron London, University of California Press, Limited, 2003. Paperbacks: $28.95. Many sociologists, human rights organizations, as well as political scientists, favorably received the book. For instance, according to one historian, the text provides a properly documented examination of Ron’s concisely selected examples, as well as sophisticated frameworks for appreciating these situations. On the other hand, sociologists compliment the author for his engaging and extremely promising hypothesis and exemplary use of infinite detail to create footnotes as enjoyable to peruse as the key part of the text. However, from the text, it is quite possible to critique Ron’s writing on numerous grounds. Firstly, the cleansing distinction versus ethnic policing is perhaps too coarse for normative and legal assessments of state violence. Additionally Ron applied the frontier concept rather inconsistently with regard to the inherent comparisons he seeks to make. Evidently, compared to Green and Ward’s depiction of state violence, Ron provides crude instances of state violence. For instance, Ron affirms that approximately 750 Palestinians were murdered in the course of The First Intifada, thousands were incarcerated, 13,000 were injured and hundreds became homeless. Ron’s examples are not exactly accurate. For instance, the Bosnian and Lebanese frontiers are not as similar as the author purports. This is because Bosniaks within Bosnia were largely unarmed and lacked sufficient defense mechanisms while Palestinian paramilitaries domiciled in South Lebanon were greatly armed and often took part in cross-border military incursions against the Israelis. Clearly, Ron’s work is not as effective and compelling as Green and Ward’s book, especially on account of the aforementioned inconsistencies with reality. However, Ron argues rather persuasively regarding the importance of studying not only the reasons behind state violence, but also how such violence is perpetuated. It is clear that Ron’s examination of the practice of state violence indicates that international standards are stronger than political scientists ever envisioned. In the text, Ron makes use of relatively controversial comparisons between the occurrences in Serbia and Israel with a view to depict a fresh theory of state-inflicted violence. As a former research consultant for human rights watch group, as well as the International Red Cross, Ron was witness to diverse patterns of state coercion, which he articulates in the book. “Frontiers and Ghettos” portrays an institutional strategy towards state violence by drawing on the author’s field research in Turkey, Chechnya, Balkans, the Middle East and Africa. Additionally, Ron draws on his numerous interviews with military officials, veterans, as well as political activists on all sides of state violence. Through the examination of violence from the ground up, Ron creates a rather fascinating fresh milieu for the analysis of present day’s nationalist wars. Throughout the book, Ron poises that states make use of a myriad of strategies and extents of coercive force against supposed national enemies as a consequence of differences in institutional contexts. This is quite similar to Green and Wards assertion regarding the use of state violence within institutional contexts. However, Ron goes a step further to affirm that when the target group is ghettoized, it is prone to become a victim of harsh, police-style subjugation rather than ethnic murder or cleansing. Defiantly, Ron affirms that, when target groups exist on a certain frontier, they are extremely likely to fall victim to death and cleansing rather than repression. According to Ron, this is primarily since states and ghettos share unrivaled control and dominance, but are also constrained by domestic and international moral and legal responsibilities to its populace. Ron argues that, within the frontiers, states possess minimal control and few and weak moral duties. Ron further poises that the more a state exerts its control over a certain territory, the more it is likely to gain a sense of moral, bureaucratic and political responsibility. This is especially the case with regard to the fate of individuals who abode within the state. Such senses of responsibility result in states choosing to apply minimally violent forms of repressions within ghettos in comparison to situations in which states target populations that do not live in ghettos. Through one of the most thrilling classical social science researches, the author expounds on the topic of state-inflicted violence to discover the manner in which states need to act, as well as how they act in reality. In order to explain his findings from research conducted in Serbia and Israel, Ron illustrates the difference between a ghetto and a frontier. According to Ron, the targets of state violence change according to the location of such victims. For instance, in the frontier, the victims of state violence typically exist on or beyond the confines of state borders. However, in the ghettos, Ron argues that targets of state violence are administratively and territorially sandwiched within the state’s borders. Ron provides that frontier situations, for instance, the Serbian’s incursion into Bosnia or the Israelis in Lebanon, are likely to result in greater violence and ethnic cleansing. On the other hand, ghetto conditions also create violence, albeit primarily in the form of what the author terms as ethnic policing. In both instances, the state institutes the form of state violence most applicable to the specific task at hand. Similar to Green and Ward, Ron also utilizes examples to exemplify his points and drive his point home. For instance, Ron provides the example of Kosovo as a compelling demonstration of his assertion. The example shows that when international intervention threatened to capture the province from Serbia, Kosovo was immediately transformed from a ghetto into a frontier. This transformation resulted in the escalation of violence to the level of ethnic cleansing. From the reading, it is evident that ghettos and frontiers provide both an effectively documented examination of Ron’s applied examples, as well as a framework to facilitate the comprehension of such situations, for instance, the post-1988 account of the Palestinians and Israel. In essence, Ron provides a strikingly convincing examination of the elements that influence both controlled and uncontrolled state-directed violence within the present period. The analysis further adds rather substantially to the sociology of the state, for which Green and Ward’s book appears to provide an introduction. Read More