Clientelism and state capture in the EU and EU-accession countries
Patron-client relations, rule of law weakness, state capture: how different are these concepts, and in which way do they play out across European countries?
While state-capture-like developments are often discussed in specific (especially East) European contexts, there have been few meaningful attempts to put these dynamics into conversation with those occurring in nominally more established European democracies. To these ends, the event will explore the patterns of grand corruption in the Balkans and in selected EU member states (e.g. Hungary, Italy, Croatia or Bulgaria) through a comparative lens. By so doing, it will reassess clientelism and state capture as new-old forms of politics, raising questions on the utility of the current framework.
This event was held on Friday 23 April 2021.