Chris Blattman

Chris Blattman

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Ferguson as organized crime and the failed state

Alex Tabarrok dissects the incredible Department of Justice Report on Ferguson. Truly astonishing things: $321 in fines and fees and 3 warrants per household, a parking ticket leading to multiple arrests and jailings. Much of it pursuit of revenue.

The abuse in Ferguson shouldn’t really surprise us–this is how most governments behave most of the time. Democracy constrains what governments do but it’s a thin constraint easily capable of being pierced when stressed.

The worst abuses of government happen when an invading gang conquer people of a different race, religion and culture. What happened in Ferguson was similar only the rulers stayed the same and the population of the ruled changed. In 1990 Ferguson was 74% white and 25% black. Just 20 years later the percentages had nearly inverted, 29% white and 67% black. The population of rulers, however, changed more slowly so white rulers found themselves overlording a population that was foreign to them. As a result, democracy broke down and government as usual, banditry and abuse, broke out.

I’m reminded of Charles Tilly on Warmaking and Statemaking as Organized Crime.

Incidentally, when we look across countries over time, one of the most reliable predictors of state failure and conflict are ethnically-factionalized quasi-democracies.

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