ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the persistence of informality in Southeast European politics, highlighting the dual phenomena of state and societal capture. While formal democratic institutions exist, political dynamics are often dictated by informal networks and practices. State capture enables elites to exploit public resources by overriding formal institutions, while societal capture ensures political legitimacy through clientelistic exchanges between parties, citizens, businesses, and the media. Through empirical findings from the INFORM project, the chapter details mechanisms such as patronage-based employment, selective law enforcement, and political clientelism. By distinguishing state capture from societal capture, the chapter offers a nuanced framework for understanding governance failures and the entrenchment of informal power structures in the region.
