ABSTRACT

In this paper I analyze the Trump, Putin, and Zuma regimes as “thugocracies”: projects of sophisticated state capture, through organized crime networks at every level of scale, and utilizing complex arrays of mafia tactics, personnel, and practices. With a basis in first-hand ethnography on the modalities of the mafia in Russia in the 1990s, I delineate critical interconnections between thugocrats operating in South Africa, the Russian Federation, and the United States, arguing that their networks are simultaneously local, extensively transnational, and closely intertwined. Though thugocratic regimes target the rule of law and civil society in order to “make crime legal,” I conclude that inquiries like the South African Zondo Commission help create public outrage and awareness of the threat thugocracy poses to democracy.

摘要

在本文中，我将特朗普政权，普京政权和祖马政权视为“暴政”：通过各个级别的有组织犯罪网络并利用复杂的黑手党战术，人员和实践，对复杂的国家进行抓捕的项目。基于第一手民族志，以1990年代俄罗斯黑手党的形式为基础，我描述了在南非，俄罗斯联邦和美国开展活动的朝圣者之间的重要联系，认为他们的网络同时是本地的，广泛的跨国性的，并且紧密地交织在一起。尽管为了实现“使犯罪合法化”，专制政权以法治和公民社会为目标，但我得出的结论是，南非Zondo委员会之类的调查有助于引起公众的愤慨，并意识到暴政对民主的威胁。