Regimes of Permission and State-Corporate Crime

The state-corporate crime literature has given momentum to a fundamentallyimportant task: that of “bringing the state back in” to the study ofthe social harms caused by corporations. Yet as this article argues, we need towiden the theoretical scope of the concept of “state-corporatecrime” if we are to grasp the full significance of state-corporatesymbiosis in the production of corporate crime. The article argues for ahistorically and systemically sensitive analysis of the state-corporate relationthat takes account of the a priori constitutional features ofthe relationship between states and corporations in contemporary capitalistdemocracies. The article therefore uses the state-corporate crime literature asa point of departure for understanding a deeper structural relation betweenorganized capital and state institutions.