The multiplexity of political conspiracy: illegal networks and the collapse of Watergate

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Sociology

Publication Date

5-2013

Abstract

Using historical data from the United State's Watergate criminal conspiracy case, we construct five sociomatrices representing the multiplex social relations of political conspiracy. Sociomatrices representing (1) the social relations of the illegal relations among the conspirators, (2) fractious relations between the conspirators during the working period of the conspiracy, (3) fractious relations between the conspirators during the crisis stage of the conspiracy, (4) the flow of money among the conspirators and (5) the relations of which specific conspirators testified against specific other co-conspirators. The quadratic assignment procedure (QAP analysis) is used to determine the extent to which these five sociomatrices are inter-related. QAP analysis shows that the structure of the five sociomatrices are related to each other, implying that political conspiracies are composed of multiplex relations of working acts of deviance, relations of dyadic fractiousness, conduits of illegal financing and the betrayal of co-conspirators through finger pointing at trial.

Comments

This article was originally published in Global Crime. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

Due to copyright restrictions, this article is not available for free download from ScholarWorks @ CWU.

Journal

Global Crime

Rights

© 2013 Taylor & Francis

Link to Full Text
Contact Author

Share

COinS