RSVP Here.

Why do politicians cooperate peacefully with organized criminal groups? Interactions between organized criminal groups and politicians are often either depicted as coercive or where the politician is a member
of the criminal group. Using mixed-methods research on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this project shows that there is a third explanation for cooperation: politicians willingly engage with organized criminal groups
at arms-length when it is in their electoral interest to seek out these arrangements and when they have a low chance of being caught.

Presented by Jessie Bullock, PhD Candidate in Government, Harvard University

Discussants: Professor Ignacio Cano, Professor of Sociology, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro;
Professor Ben Lessing, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
Moderated by Professor Frances Hagopian, Jorge Paulo Lemann Senior Lecturer on Government, Harvard University

Presented in collaboration with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.