The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
For a long time, the Mafia had been considered an anti-modern phenomenon that would have come to an end with society’s evolution. Contrary to this expectation, the Mafia proved to be far more resilient — so much so that it could respond effectively to the challenge of globalisation. The research pap...
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Giordano, C. 2021-12-12T18:29:42Z 2021-12-12T18:29:42Z 2017 The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime / C. Giordano // Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг. — 2017. — № 2. — С. 149-166. — англ. 1563-4426 https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/182086 316.35 For a long time, the Mafia had been considered an anti-modern phenomenon that would have come to an end with society’s evolution. Contrary to this expectation, the Mafia proved to be far more resilient — so much so that it could respond effectively to the challenge of globalisation. The research paper highlights how the Mafia has shown itself to be more modern than the State on account of its strategic use of personalised networks. The personalised and informal Mafia networks turned out to be much more efficient and better organised both in public mistrust societies, in which the Mafia finds its most, favourable habitat, to flourish, and in the vast, context, of globalisation, where formal institutions have trouble as to establishing themselves and imposingtheir rule for structural reasons. en Iнститут соціології НАН України Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг Статьи The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime Article published earlier |
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The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime Giordano, C. Статьи |
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For a long time, the Mafia had been considered an anti-modern phenomenon that would have come to an end with society’s evolution. Contrary to this expectation, the Mafia proved to be far more resilient — so much so that it could respond effectively to the challenge of globalisation. The research paper highlights how the Mafia has shown itself to be more modern than the State on account of its strategic use of personalised networks. The personalised and informal Mafia networks turned out to be much more efficient and better organised both in public mistrust societies, in which the Mafia finds its most, favourable habitat, to flourish, and in the vast, context, of globalisation, where formal institutions have trouble as to establishing themselves and imposingtheir rule for structural reasons.
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The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime / C. Giordano // Социология: теория, методы, маркетинг. — 2017. — № 2. — С. 149-166. — англ. |
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Christian Giordano
The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
CHRISTIAN GIORDANO, UDC 316.35
Department of Social Anthropology, University of
Fribourg (Switzerland)
The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust,
Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
Abstract
For a long time, the Ma fia had been con sid ered an anti-mod ern phe nom e non that
would have come to an end with so ci ety’s evo lu tion. Con trary to this ex pec ta tion, the
Ma fia proved to be far more re sil ient — so much so that it could re spond ef fec tively to
the chal lenge of globalisation. The re search pa per high lights how the Ma fia has shown
it self to be more mod ern than the State on ac count of its stra te gic use of per son al ised
net works. The per son al ised and in for mal Ma fia net works turned out to be much more
ef fi cient and better or gan ised both in pub lic mis trust so ci et ies, in which the Ma fia
finds its most fa vour able hab i tat to flour ish, and in the vast con text of globalisation,
where for mal in sti tu tions have trou ble as to es tab lish ing them selves and im pos ing their
rule for struc tural rea sons.
Keywords: personalised networks, informality, the State’s inefficiency, public mis -
trust, folkloristic approach, social structure
An Enchanted View of the Mafia
Ever since the Ma fia was dis cov ered in Sic ily in the sec ond half of the 19th
cen tury, both ex perts and lay men have looked upon it as both a mon strous and
fas ci nat ing in de ci pher able phe nom e non. This en chant ment, quite con spic u ous
among re search ers (par tic u larly among so ci ol o gists, ju rists and, in the past, phys -
i cal an thro pol o gists) and art ists alike (writ ers and film di rec tors fore most), high -
lights a deep-rooted ethnocentric par a dox, which, from the very first, char ac ter -
ised the de bate on this global so cial phe nom e non now a days.
The first as pect of this par a dox may be sum ma rised as fol lows: among Ma fia
ex perts, we can de tect the opin ion, at times im plicit and of ten un con scious, that
the Ma fia is an ob so lete man i fes ta tion, un wor thy of mo der nity and per tain ing to
“Dark Ages” con not ing so cial bar ba rism. Ac cord ing to this view, which, at least
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2 149
po ten tially, is cer tainly brought on by the 18th cen tury ra tio nal ism, Ma fia and
quasi-Ma fia phe nom ena are in ter preted as a relic of a dy ing ar chaic world.
In the mean time, we real ise that an op ti mis tic evo lu tion ist sce nario is a far
cry from re al ity. The fact that the Ma fia in Palermo does not kill any more does
not mean that it has been de feated or dis man tled: it is only an in di ca tion that it no
lon ger needs to re sort to phys i cal vi o lence. Judges, po lice au thor i ties and some
pol i ti cians com mit ted to the anti-Ma fia fight ap pro pri ately point out that in Sic -
ily, par tic u larly in Palermo, the Ma fia is alive, flour ish ing and has noth ing to fear
any more. Ac cord ing to this dis qui et ing re mark, made on 12 Oc to ber 2003 by
Luciano Violante, for mer pres i dent of the Ital ian Cham ber of Dep u ties, we must
as sume that at pres ent the Ma fia in Sic ily can once again weave its po lit i cal in -
trigues and man age its il le gal eco nomic en ter prises with out fear ing the state’s in -
ter ven tion — con trary to what oc curred in the early nine ties of the past cen tury
(La Repubblica, 13 Oc to ber 2003). There fore, the Ma fia does not need to re sort
to star tling vi o lent ac tions as it kills persone eccellenti1 only when it feels threat -
ened by the pub lic au thor ity. Luciano Violante’s state ment also means that the
Ma fia in Sic ily has suc cess fully man aged to over come the crit i cal phase in which
the State had waged war against it. If this fore cast, which, more over, had been ex -
pressed in 2000 by a se nior in ves ti ga tive judge Ferdinando Imposimato, is cor -
rect, then we can draw the con clu sion that the Ma fia is ca pa ble of re pro duc ing it -
self and pros per ing even in late mo der nity [Imposimato, 2000].
At this point, we can in tro duce the sec ond as pect of the par a dox. Re gret fully,
ex perts have to ad mit once more that the Ma fia is ex tremely re sis tant. In sev eral
rep re sen ta tions and dis courses, the Ma fia is lik ened to those sin gu larly vi cious vi -
ruses that, through their in ces sant mu ta tions, are able to per ma nently en dan ger a
hu man group’s col lec tive health. More spe cif i cally, in Sic ily we can ob serve that
over the years the State has fought against the Ma fia by us ing some re pres sive
strat e gies, yet we must also ac knowl edge that the Ma fia has never been an ni hi -
lated.
The par a dox that mys ti fies ex perts and con cur rently kin dles their in ter est in
the Ma fia can thus be ex pressed as fol lows: Ma fia phe nom ena are man i fes ta tions
that are re garded as ar chaic, yet they are able to re pro duce them selves in any type
of mo der nity. There is a bla tant con tra dic tion in this view of the Ma fia. If the Ma -
fia ac tu ally con tin ues to re pro duce it self to this day, it can not be re garded as a
typ i cal ex am ple of ob so lete so cial or gani sa tions.
Such a par a dox, as the orig i nal mean ing of this no tion shows, is based on the
mys ti fied as ton ish ment at a seem ingly con tra dic tory re al ity. This de cep tive in -
con sis tency is rooted, as Max Weber would state, in the on go ing con fu sion be -
tween the cri te ria based on value judge ments and the sci en tific in ter pre ta tion of
facts. In other words, it lies in the dis crep ancy be tween the pre vail ing (and un -
doubt edly le git i mate) ea ger ness to fi nally van quish the Ma fia and the frus trat ing
so cio log i cal fact of its per sis tence that ex perts have to in vari ably face. How ever,
re main ing per plexed about this par a dox cer tainly does not help us un der stand
the Ma fia nor why it is so re sis tant. In any case, this par a dox can even be mis lead -
ing since it is highly in cor rect to think that the Ma fia, as a so cially rel e vant phe -
150 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2
Christian Giordano
1 Excellencies, i. e. notables and representatives of the State’s authority.
nom e non, is on its way to ex tinc tion only be cause, at first glance, it may be con -
strued as an or gani sa tion whose struc ture and cul ture places it in pre-mo der -
nity’s “Dark Ages”.
In this ar ti cle, there fore, we will try to clar ify above all the fol low ing as pects:
— The Ma fia has spe cific socio-struc tural char ac ter is tics that fur ther its re -
pro duc tion and ex pan sion in late mo der nity (or postmodernity, as the
case may be).
— These spe cific socio-struc tural char ac ter is tics are typ i fied by highly per -
son al ised in for mal net works that make the Ma fia par tic u larly flex i ble,
thus more ef fi cient in com par i son with the ri gid ity of the State founded on
a formalised apparatus.
— In Sic ily and other ar eas of the world, the Ma fia’s cur rent rai son d’être lies
in the chronic lack of trust in ev ery thing pub lic. As a leg acy of the past, dis -
trust is a so cial pro duc tion per ma nently re pro duced in the pres ent.
What the Mafia Is and Is Not
The Myth of the Accursed Race
In the last quar ter of the 19th cen tury, a fa mous school of crim i nol ogy that
was called Scuola positiva italiana (Ital ian Posi tiv ist School) de vel oped around
Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909). It was ac knowl edged both na tion ally and in ter -
na tion ally (for ex am ple, in Spain) thanks to its stud ies on the uomo delinquente
(crim i nal man) that were based on those meth ods of phys i cal an thro pol ogy and
craniometry, which, at that time, were con sid ered the most up-to-date. To the
most re nowned Lombroso’s dis ci ples be longed Enrico Ferri (1856–1929), a
crim i nal law yer and so cial ist pol i ti cian, Giuseppe Sergi (1841–1936), an ex per i -
men tal psy chol o gist and phi los o pher, and, last but not least, Alfredo Niceforo
(1876–1960), a so ci ol o gist and crim i nol o gist. Es pe cially the lat ter, be ing one of
the youn gest rep re sen ta tives of the Scuola positiva italiana, may be re garded as
the mas ter mind of the ra cial-crim i no log i cal myth about the Mezzogiorno1 and
the Ma fia, though the cru cial points of his ar gu men ta tion are pres ent in some ob -
ser va tions made by Lombroso and Ferri. In fact, Lombroso stressed lit er ally that
all the peo ple from the Mezzogiorno have the traits of an at a vis tic crim i nal while
Ferri added that lower crime rates in It aly’s north ern re gions could be traced
back to the Celtic in flu ence.
Niceforo him self — of Si cil ian ex trac tion, take note — in his two main works
“L’Italia barbara contemporanea” (“Con tem po rary bar bar ian It aly”) and “Italia -
ni del nord e italiani del sud” (“North ern Ital ians and south ern Ital ians”) theo -
rised the ex is tence of two dif fer ent races that made up the Ital ian na tion [Nice -
foro, 1898; Niceforo, 1901]. Us ing craniometrical data, he emphasised the dif fer -
ence be tween Ary ans of Celtic or i gin who lived in the north ern area of the pen in -
sula all the way to Tuscany and the Mediterraneans who lived in It aly’s south and
its is lands. The pop u la tion of the South, whom Niceforo in no un cer tain terms
called the raz za maledetta (ac cursed race), is char ac ter ised by an in born and bi o -
log i cally pre de ter mined ten dency to wards de vi ant be hav iour in gen eral and
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2 151
The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
1 The southern part of Italy and its islands.
crime in par tic u lar, which could ex plain high crime rates in the South. Ac cord ing
to Niceforo, sys tem atic rob ber ies, ho mi cides, count less prop erty torts, ban ditry
and, fi nally, the Ma fia rep re sent the most strik ing proofs of this ten dency caused
by the spe cific ra cial back ground.
At first sight and from our pres ent-day per spec tive, we could think that the
Scuola positiva italiana and par tic u larly Niceforo fa voured far-right ideas. We
need to note in stead that the pro duc tion of the ra cial-crim i no log i cal stigma con -
cern ing the pop u la tion of south ern It aly is above all the dread ful con se quence of
the pro gres sive en chant ment men tioned in the in tro duc tion. In those days, the
Scuola positiva italiana was a sort of tem ple of prog ress whose mem bers, as a his to -
rian Claudia Petraccone has shown in de tail, were al most with out ex cep tion po -
lit i cally ac tive in the so cial ist or anticlerical area [Petraccone, 1994; Pet ra c cone,
2000]. This com bi na tion of rac ism and pro gres siv ism, hardly con ceiv able now a -
days, can be seen as an in di ca tion of the as ton ish ment of the Scuola positiva
italiana at a phe nom e non that was nearly un fath om able to most of its rep re sen ta -
tives; i. e. the strong per sis tence of be hav ioural mod els in the South that could
only be in ter preted as ob so lete and bar baric, ac cord ing to the op ti mis tic mod ern -
ist out look. In ad di tion, as Petraccone ap pro pri ately stresses, there was a po lit i -
cal as pect. The fact that the peas ants of the Mezzogiorno, de spite liv ing in a sit u a -
tion of ex treme pov erty and semi-feu dal de pend ence, would still back the old no -
ta bles and land lords — who in Sic ily were of ten re garded as Ma fi osi — and would
not vote for left-wing lib er als or So cial ist Party rep re sen ta tives, was to tally in ex -
pli ca ble for mem bers of the Scuola positiva italiana. It aly’s south was stead fastly
such a con ser va tive bas tion that even Filippo Turati, the un dis puted leader of the
Ital ian So cial ist Party at that time, em braced the the sis of the two races and two
civili sa tions and made use of it in the po lit i cal arena.
There fore, the mys ti fied as ton ish ment due to the enig matic per sis tence of
spe cific be hav ioural mod els in duced the Scuola positiva italiana to cre ate and
spread the myth of the ac cursed race. In Niceforo’s case, we can also as sume the
ex is tence of a neg a tive pa tri o tism. He per ceived the is land ers’ con ser va tive at ti -
tude and their re fusal of any type of in no va tion al most as a na tional shame, which
he him self, as a Si cil ian, tried to avoid. By de nounc ing his own fel low coun try men
as be long ing to an in fe rior race, and thus dis tanc ing him self from them, he was ap -
par ently striv ing to prove that not all Si cil ians were un en light ened. For an ex -
plan a tory model de vel oped by the Scuola positiva italiana, the anti-pro gres sive
strength of the per sis tence of il le gal, de vi ant or ab er rant ac tions be comes cred it -
able only due to the ex is tence of an in vari able he red i tary trait de fined by be long -
ing to a spe cific race.
Par a dox i cally, the ideas and ar gu ments of the Scuola positiva italiana and
Nice foro, which at that time were re garded as pro gres sive, are now be ing taken up
again by ex treme right-wing, xe no pho bic and rac ist cir cles linked to the Lega
Nord1 to add cred i bil ity to the rep re sen ta tion of a to day’s bar ba rism in It aly’s
south. Thus, due to such a po lit i cal ex ploi ta tion, we can not look upon the myth of
the ac cursed race only as a cu rio.
152 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2
Christian Giordano
1 Lega Nord (literally “North League”) is a far-right party advocating the independence of
northern and central Italy.
The Folkloristic Myth
Ac cord ing to this ap proach, Ma fia and quasi-Ma fia as so ci a tions are re garded
as be ing prac ti cally iden ti cal to shady and un der cover or gani sa tions or oc cult se -
cret so ci et ies. The Si cil ian Ma fia is re garded as an em a na tion of a leg end ary se cret
fra ter nity, the no ta ble and no to ri ous Beati Paoli (the Blessed Pauls, also known
as Beati di San Paolo), which, in the 17th and 18th cen tu ries, ex celled at ap ply ing
its per sonal jus tice via threats or sys tem atic re course to phys i cal vi o lence against
the rul ing class’s abuse of power and against the Span ish law’s ar bi trari ness
[Mühlmann, 1969; Giordano, 1992: p. 406]. More over, the Ma fia is com pared or
even as sim i lated to Masonic lodges or Carbonarism, i. e. those se cret so ci et ies
that drew in spi ra tion from Giuseppe Mazzini dur ing the Ital ian Risorgimento1.
Some ex perts would even have the term “Ma fia” de rive from this or i gin, as it
would be the ac ro nym of Mazzini autorizza furti, incendi, avvelenamenti (“Maz -
zini author ises rob ber ies, arsons, poi son ings”) [Hess, 1988: p. 4]. Such an ar gu -
ment of et y mo log i cal na ture, though rather bi zarre, has main tained some cred i -
bil ity to date, prob a bly be cause these ac ro nyms were quite pop u lar in the se cret
ver bal codes of the Risorgimento.
Such a rep re sen ta tion of the Ma fia shows a com bi na tion of ex otic and
orientalist odd i ties. Thus, the Ma fia is down graded to a bi zarre jum ble of
— shady and oc ca sion ally gory ini ti a tion rites to con firm the can di date’s ad -
mis sion to the as so ci a tion,
— mys te ri ous cer e mo nies to cer tify and con firm ties of rec i proc ity, as well as
— spe cific friend ship and kin ship so cial prac tices to strengthen sol i dar ity
among mem bers of the al leged se cret so ci et ies [Alongi, 1887: pp. 140 ff.;
Cutrera, 1900: pp. 140 ff.; Hess, 1988: pp. 106–110].
More over, the folkloristic ap proach per ma nently re fers to the ex is tence of
spe cific Ma fia-style at tire, se cret phrase ol ogy and jar gon.
How ever, the folkloristic ap proach can not be dis missed as a bi zarre col lec -
tion of ar bi trary fan ta sies of the au thors who cre ated it and made it pop u lar. In all
these rep re sen ta tions of the Ma fia, there is cer tainly a ker nel of truth. Nev er the -
less, the voy eur is tic over state ment of the co vert or mys te ri ous as pect and the fas -
ci nated ex al ta tion of rit ual and cer e mo nial odd i ties are both dis turb ing and mis -
lead ing.
The most con spic u ous case in which Ital ian mag is trates drew on the folk -
loristic ap proach in volves the “rit ual kiss” be tween Giulio Andreotti, a pol i ti cian
and three-time prime min is ter, and Totò Riina, the al leged capo dei capi (chief of
all chiefs) of the Si cil ian Ma fia. The “kiss”, tes ti fied by a Ma fia pentito2, would
have proven the col lu sion be tween Andreotti and the Ma fia. How ever, no fur ther
ev i dence emerged ex cept for this false tes ti mony and Andreotti was ac quit ted.
Ul ti mately, in the au thor’s opin ion, the mag is trates in Palermo made a bun gling
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2 153
The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
1 Risorgimento (literally “revival”) is a movement for the unification and independence of
Italy.
2 The person who repents, i. e. a member of a criminal (or terrorist) organisation who after
being arrested collaborates in the investigations with the authorities in exchange for benefits
such as more lenient sentences and witness protection programmes. The formal judicial
definition is collaboratore di giustizia (collaborator of justice).
use of the folkloristic ap proach in the “kiss” in ci dent since these rit u als are pieces
of fic tion that so cio log i cal re search has as cer tained no lon ger ex ist and prob a bly
never did ex ist [Hess, 1988: p. 108; Paoli, 2000].
In this case, we can also see the en chanted view’s con se quences. In fact, ever
since It aly’s Unity (1860), i. e. when the Ma fia was thought to be dis cov ered, the
po lice, the law and the press have al ways stressed the ab er rance of the Ma fia phe -
nom e non through the un mis tak able over state ment of de vi ant char ac ter is tics
and/or the most grue some spec i fic ity. This was car ried out so that both the hon -
our able so ci ety’s ap par ently un fath om able be hav iour and its un yield ing co he sion
could be come more plau si ble both for them selves and for the Ital ian and Si cil ian
pub lic opin ion. Thus, the folkloristic ap proach was pro duced even thanks to el o -
quent and imag i na tive pros e cut ing wit nesses [Hess, 1988: p. 107]. Over a pe riod
of 150 years, it has been re pro duced, re con firmed, strength ened and mod i fied,
but never to tally dis missed. The par a dox i cal fact is that the main pro duc ers and
us ers, among whom there are also very con sci en tious and highly qual i fied rep re -
sen ta tives of the law, are prey to their own con struc tion.
Due to exoticisation and orientalisation, the folkloristic ap proach of the Ma -
fia in the end has cre ated an ar ti fi cial neg a tive alterity [Giordano, 2001: p. 44]
that has pro vided it with unique and prac ti cally un lim ited char ac ter is tics. Thus,
para phras ing a Ger man theo lo gian Rudolf Otto, the Ma fia boasts a quasi-nu min -
ous aura in which tremendum (fear some) merges with energicum (vig or ous) and
consequently with the fascinans (fascination) [Otto, 2004]. The folkloristic
approach spread by the Mafia’s enemies has turned into one of its trumps. In fact,
the Mafia has been fully able to exploit it, especially to increase its influence,
improve its image and strengthen its actual authority over a population that is
quite sceptical about all public institutions.
The Culturalistic Myth
The cor re la tions and anal o gies with the pre vi ously ana lysed myths are plain
to see: the ques tion able struc ture of the culturalistic myth has un mis tak able af -
fin i ties with those of the ra cial-crim i no log i cal dis course while the il lus tra tions
of ten pos sess a folkloristic trait. This myth is based on the fol low ing hy poth e sis:
be tween the Ma fia as an or gani sa tion on the one hand and the sys tem of so cial
rep re sen ta tions and its as so ci ated spir i tual at ti tudes on the other hand there is a
bind ing and nec es sary link with the Si cil ian cul tural iden tity, i. e. a pur ported
sicilianità.
Such a con cep tion is based on the non-cor rob o rated sup po si tion that signs of
the Ma fia are de tect able as early as an cient times, or in deed even in dim mer pre -
his toric ages. There fore, some his to ri ans stress that the Ma fia’s or i gins can be
traced back to the Magna Graecia or the ancient Roman world. Other experts
instead believe that at first the Mafia developed during the Arab domination1
[Titone, 1957; Titone, 1964; Mack-Smith, 1968; Falzone, 1974: pp. 13 ff.]. Thus,
what is implied is that there has always been a culture or, better yet, a cul tural
stock in Sicily induced by a primordial Mafia inclination. The Mafia, in this case,
would be above all a body of specific attitudes called spiri to di ma fia (the Mafia
154 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2
Christian Giordano
1 For instance, the Emirate of Sicily existed from 831 to 1090. Its capital was Palermo called
by the Arab conquerors al-Madinah.
spirit) [Mosca, 1980: p. 3] that could almost be regarded as a consistent trait of
the Si cil ian na tional char ac ter. For example, Luigi Barzini, one of the principal
founders of contemporary Italian journalism, described the Sicilians’ (culturally
defined) Mafia inclination as “...a state of mind, a philosophy of life, a conception
of society, a moral code, a particular susceptibility, prevailing among all Sicilians.
They are taught in the cradle, or are born already knowing, that they must aid
each other, side with their friends and fight the common enemies even when the
friends are wrong and the enemies are right; each must defend his dignity at all
costs and never allow the smallest slights and insults to go unavenged; they must
keep secrets and always beware of official authorities and laws. These principles
are shared by all Sicilians, by the upright gentleman and the petty thief, the
penniless prince living in his dusty ‘palazzo’ or the heroin smuggler with relatives
in the United States, the erudite scholar lost in his research and the illiterate
sulphur miner. These principles are also carefully preserved among Sicilians
living in the rest of Italy and abroad. In fact, a Sicilian who does not feel these
compulsions should no longer consider himself a Sicilian” [Barzini, 1996:
pp. 253–254].
A sim i lar view point rooted in the culturalistic myth is cur rently no tice able in
the anal y sis of Ma fia or quasi-Ma fia phe nom ena in East ern Eu rope, Asia and
Latin Amer ica, chiefly in spe cific jour nal is tic ap proaches that try to ex plain these
man i fes ta tions through an over sim pli fied view of na tional traits us ing ad jec tives
such as Rus sian, Al ba nian, Ro ma nian, Cau ca sian, Bal kan, Chi nese, Co lom bian
and so on. Fur ther more, op er at ing with culturalistic de tails, as Barzini does in
the above ex cerpt, is dis con cert ing.
Nev er the less, we ought to bear in mind that the culturalistic myth can also be
read from a pos i tive stand point. Such a pro-Ma fia about-turn, based on an
antithetical interpretation and evaluation of events, is perfectly discernible when
the Ma fia spirit is consciously or unconsciously recognised as one’s own concept
of national honour. As Julian Pitt-Rivers aptly highlighted in his definition of
honour, this feeling is based on the belief that as a Sicilian, an Albanian, etc., an
individual has nothing to blame himself for and can only be proud of his actions,
though the latter may even be Mafia-like [Pitt-Rivers, 1966]. This outlook, as
well as the reinterpretation of Mafia phenomena, is detectable among radical
representatives of Sicilianism and Sicilianist ide ol ogy, who are the advocates and
backers of the Sicilian separatist movement. To this day, they perceive the Mafia
and the brigandage1 (which is now extinct) as a type of insurgency against
various forms of foreign domination and rulers oppressing the islanders ever since
ancient times [Marino, 1971; Kehr, 1984; Lupo, 1993; Paoli, 2000: pp. 20 ff.;
Saccа-Reuter, 2005]. However, the adherents of the culturalistic myth often
refuse to accept the fact that the onorata società (honourable society) is a
criminal association.
The Pyramid Approach
This rep re sen ta tion is based on the be lief that the Si cil ian Ma fia, as well as
cor re spond ing phe nom ena in It aly, Eu rope and around the world, is a mono lithic,
cen tral ised and rig idly struc tured or gani sa tion. Thus, Ma fia as so ci a tions are
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The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
1 Brigandage literally means “highway robbery”.
char ac ter ised by strongly hi er ar chi cal py ram i dal struc tures. As as so ci a tions,
they in volve a ver ti cal chain of var i ous for mally de fined ranks and roles. The
so-called cu pola (i. e. the Ma fia’s gov ern ment) with the capo dei capi is at the top
of the pyr a mid. The in ter me di ate rank con sists of a so cially dif fer en ti ated stra -
tum of sottocapi (dep uty chiefs) while the manovali (un skilled work ers), who
carry out what is con sid ered less pres ti gious and dirty work, are at the bot tom.
Giuseppe Fava, a Si cil ian jour nal ist who was killed by the Ma fia in 1984, like wise
drew a dis tinc tion be tween the three lev els in its or gani sa tional struc ture: the
basic level (con sist ing of kill ers), the mid dle (think ers and plan ners) and the top
(con sist ing of pol i ti cians) [Fava, 1983: pp. 27 ff.].
If we ana lyse these rep re sen ta tions in de tail, we will no tice that the Ma fia, ac -
cord ing to the pyr a mid met a phor, dis plays struc tural anal o gies with the or gani -
sa tion of mod ern states. Thus, through this met a phor, the im pres sion is that the
Ma fia has been set up in ac cor dance with the mod ern ter ri to rial State’s model.
Hence, the Ma fia seems to be a sort of the anti-State, which, in the end, turns out
to be a mir ror im age of the State it self.
It is com mon knowl edge that em pir i cal ev i dence sub stan ti at ing the above
met a phor has been lack ing so far: Ital ian po lice and le gal au thor i ties that have
dealt with associazione di malfattori (as so ci a tion of male fac tors) and associazione
per delinquere (crim i nal con spir acy) have never been able to prove the ex is tence
of fixed or gani sa tional struc tures within Ma fia groups. This is cer tainly one of the
rea sons why sev eral Ma fia bosses in the past man aged to get ac quit ted on the
grounds of in suf fi cient ev i dence. The fight against the Ma fia in Sic ily and south -
ern It aly sud denly be came more ef fi cient at the time of pub lic pros e cu tors
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, i. e. when the par a digm of a py ram i dal
Ma fia or gani sa tion, due mainly to their re mark able com pe tence and in sight, was
relativised and the far more flex i ble no tion of associazione a delinquere di stampo
ma fi oso (Ma fia-like crim i nal as so ci a tion) was in tro duced into the ju rid i cal ap pa -
ra tus. Prac ti cally, the fact that the Ma fia has spe cific struc tures that are un like
those of other types of or gan ised crime was ac knowl edged. There fore, the ex plan -
a tory strength of the Ma fia as an or gan ised pyr a mid-like en tity mir ror ing the
State and be ing in di rect op po si tion to it turned out to be quite ques tion able,
from both the stand point of crim i nal prac tice and the o ret i cal per spec tives.
How ever, we must ad mit that the pyr a mid met a phor is very con ve nient: due
to its sim i lar i ties with the State, it takes on a more fa mil iar, thus less mys ti fy ing
as pect. Con cur rently, this met a phor em bod ies an ethnocentric prej u dice that
proved fa tal to the crim i nal jus tice sys tem’s ef fi ciency (or at least hin der ing it).
We are talk ing about the be lief typ i cal of West ern mo der nity that any or gani sa -
tion, in or der to be ef fi cient (as in the case of the Ma fia), should def i nitely have a
sys tem of ra tio nal-bu reau cratic in sti tu tions anal o gous or iden ti cal to those of the
ter ri to rial State.
Fi nally, we might won der whether the Ma fia would have sur vived to this day
had it ac tu ally been a bu reau cratic-like and rig idly cen tral ised or gani sa tion. In
fact, we ought to keep in mind that the Ma fia in vari ably seems to be at least one
step ahead of the State that is fight ing it back. In or der to sur vive, the Ma fia must
al ways be able to fore see the pub lic au thor i ties’ next move. With out lay ing any
claims to thor ough ness or con clu sive an swers, we have for mu lated the fol low ing
five ques tions that fur ther chal lenge to the pyr a mid met a phor’s va lid ity:
156 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2
Christian Giordano
— Could the Ma fia have in fil trated the State’s po lit ico-bu reau cratic in sti tu -
tions so ex ten sively if its ad min is tra tive ap pa ra tus were re ally as pon der -
ous and im mov able as the State’s?
— Would the ir ra tio nal ity of ra tio nal bu reau cracy, typ i cal of mo der nity and
men tioned by Max Weber [Weber, 1956: pp. 577 ff.], not have im paired
the Ma fia’s spe cific efficiency?
— Does the Ma fia not need a more stream lined and change able or gani sa -
tional struc ture that al lows it to de velop ex tremely flex i ble strat e gies
which an tic i pate the State’s ac tions and help con ceal its own il le gal i ties?
Giovanni Falcone com mented on this fun da men tal ques tion with great in -
sight when he wrote that his great est worry is that the Ma fia is able to stay
one step ahead [Falcone, 2005: p. 121].
— If the Ma fia, as the pyr a mid met a phor sug gests, is re ally a close-knit bloc,
why do bloody con flicts, which can even turn into long-last ing Ma fia
wars, con stantly flare up?
— If the Ma fia ac tu ally were solely a type of anti-State, mir ror ing a mod ern
State, would it have been able to turn so quickly into trans na tional or even
global phe nom ena, as, for in stance, the case of ecomafia1 with its su pra na -
tional busi ness ac tiv i ties seems to be?
The Network Approach
This rep re sen ta tion of the Ma fia, which was de vel oped chiefly by a Ger man
so ci ol o gist Henner Hess [Hess, 1988: pp. 82 ff.], may be re garded as the most con -
vinc ing at tempt to in val i date the pre vi ous ap proaches we have in tro duced, par -
tic u larly the pyr a mid met a phor. Ac cord ing to the net work ap proach, the Ma fia is
to all ap pear ances an as so ci a tion that is in deed hi er ar chi cal, but also loosely
struc tured, scarcely for ma lised and, above all, non-cen tral ised. Hence, it ap pears
to be a very com plex so cial en tity re sem bling a net-like sys tem of tem po rary and
flex i ble al li ances. These Ma fia group ings are per ma nently char ac ter ised by be ing
cre ated, bro ken up and, if nec es sary, rec re ated ac cord ing to chang ing so cial sit u a -
tions and per sonal cir cum stances. In his anal y sis, Hess shows that the clas sic Si -
cil ian Ma fia as so ci a tions, par tic u larly the cosca (which in the Si cil ian di a lect lit -
er ally means “tightly bound leaves of an ar ti choke”; in other words, the tough
core sur round ing the Ma fia’s uomo di rispetto , i. e. re spect able man) and the
partito (the Ma fi oso’s sys tem of long-term so cial re la tions in clud ing his re la tions
with pub lic power rep re sen ta tives, i. e. pol i ti cians, mag is trates and bu reau crats
in gen eral) are not cor po rate groups from a struc tural point of view [Boissevain,
1974: pp. 203–205]. In the Si cil ian hon our able so ci ety, the es sen tial for mal el e -
ments (stat utes, of fi cial ranks and roles) are lack ing since Ma fia as so ci a tions con -
sist of one or more net works in which prag matic ex change re la tions are no tice -
able. To il lus trate this struc tural spec i fic ity, we need only re call that par tic u larly
in Sic ily (even out side the is land now a days) the ex pres sion amici degli amici
(friends of friends) is used in com mon par lance as a syn onym for the Ma fia.
So cial re la tions within such an ev i dent plu ral ity of Ma fia net works are quite
in for mal and ex tremely per son al ised, as the pre vi ously men tioned ex pres sion re -
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The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
1 Mafia-controlled waste trafficking, toxic dumping and environmental crimes.
veals. Es sen tially, there are three types of ties: fam ily or kin ship (in clud ing fic ti -
tious or rit ual kin ship), in stru men tal friend ships and the dyadic pa tron-cli ent re -
la tion ships [Hess, 1988: pp. 119–133; Giordano, 1992: pp. 374–399].
Yet, as an Aus trian his to rian Karl Kaser sug gests, we ought to draw a fun da -
men tal dis tinc tion be tween so ci et ies in which mu tual sup port among fam ily
mem bers and rel a tives is prev a lent and so ci et ies in which re la tion ships based on
asym met ri cal and ver ti cal pro tec tion (e. g. pa tron-cli ent re la tion ships) be come
the main stay of the en tire so cial struc ture [Kaser, 1995: pp. 167 ff.; Kaser, 2001:
pp. 71 ff.].
In the for mer type of so ci ety such as Al ba nia (es pe cially in the north ern re -
gions), there is a prev a lence of clan groups, lin eages, stock and var i ous kinds of
ex tended fam i lies. In the lat ter type, as the case of Sic ily shows, fam ily and kin -
ship struc tures are quite lim ited and the nu clear fam ily is the only ba sis for any
type of sol i dar ity and trust. In or der to broaden this fi nite sphere of so cia bil ity,
other types of per sonal ties are adopted in these so ci et ies, such as in stru men tal
friend ships and long-term dyadic re la tions be tween pa tron and cli ent. The dif fer -
ent sol i dar ity and trust struc tures have a strong in flu ence on the spe cific make-
up of Ma fia net works. Thus, fam ily and kin ship ties char ac ter ise the first type of
so ci ety rather than the sec ond type, where clientelistic re la tions are far more sig -
nif i cant.
There fore, in the first case, as the ex am ple of Al ba nia shows (which we ana -
lysed through ev i dence gath ered by the Of fice of the At tor ney Gen eral of Swit -
zer land), Ma fia net works cur rently seem to be rel a tively lim ited since they mir -
ror the struc tures and rules of a pa tri ar chal fam ily [Mutschke, 2000]. As Cristina
Matei notes, Ma fia-like struc tures based on a pa tri ar chal kin ship sys tem and
fam ily ties are no tice able in the Cau ca sus area as well [Matei, 2001].
Con versely, in the sec ond case, i. e. the Si cil ian one, there are usu ally far more
per vad ing Ma fia as so ci a tions since they are struc tur ally sim i lar to well-known
clientelistic or gani sa tions in the po lit i cal sphere. In this case, the net works are
based on ver ti cal and asym met ri cal ties; in other words, pa tron-cli ent dyads de -
fin ing de pend ence and power re la tions within the Ma fia’s fab ric. This ex plains
why the au thor ity of the capimafia in these re mark ably com plex or gani sa tions is
less for mal, yet not less hi er ar chi cal than first as sumed. The Ma fia’s power, as
Diego Gambetta has con vinc ingly af firmed, de pends on the lead ers’ trans actio -
nal abil ity and spe cif i cally on the suc cess ful ex change of ser vices be tween bosses
and sub or di nate mem bers in the net work [Gambetta, 1992: pp. 48–53]. Prac ti -
cally, if a per son ex pects to reach or main tain a dom i nant role within a Ma fia net -
work, he must con stantly prove to his hench men that he can hon our com mit -
ments and pro vide the nec es sary ser vices even through threats of phys i cal vi o -
lence or its ac tual use. For this rea son, con trary to plain pa trons, the Ma fia bosses
deemed ca pa ble and wor thy of be ing re garded as such by other net work mem bers
are in trin si cally vi o lent en tre pre neurs [Blok, 1974].
Com pared with the pyr a mid model, the net work met a phor has ob vi ous an a -
lyt i cal ad van tages. The Ma fia is con cep tual ised as an ex tremely flex i ble, var ie -
gated and change able re al ity and, above all, one that can adapt to new sit u a tions.
As such, in case of open con flict with the State it can re act by car ry ing out star -
tling ter ror at tacks, as well as ex pand and di ver sify transnationally, as also in di -
158 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2
Christian Giordano
cated in the Europol 2000 an nual re port [Europol, 2001]. In this con text, we can
point up the fol low ing as pects.
The Ma fia, as a com plex sys tem of net works, does not nec es sar ily have to be
an anti-State or a State within the State. In stead, Ma fia or gani sa tions can in fil -
trate into the State’s struc tures by mo bi lis ing net work links. Thanks to these in -
fil tra tion strat e gies, Ma fia as so ci a tions are able to probe, neu tral ise and fi nally
ex ploit spe cific peo ple and in sti tu tions of the State’s ap pa ra tus. Ferdinando
Imposimato, the Hon or ary Pres i dent of It aly’s Su preme Court, who worked in
the anti-Ma fia team with Falcone and Borsellino, has aptly stressed that the
State and its rep re sen ta tives (pol i ti cians and pub lic func tion ar ies), as le gal
guard ians of the mo nop oly on the use of force, al most al ways in ad ver tently be -
come ac com pli ces of their own en e mies [Imposimato, 2000]. Be tween the le gal
State and the il le gal Ma fia there is not a re la tion of mu tual op po si tion, but rather
a shift ing di a lec ti cal match that cre ates a sit u a tion of per ma nent re cip ro cal in ter -
ac tion and in ter de pen dence. In this re gard, we should also take into ac count the
ex is tence of very pe cu liar dis cur sive and ideo log i cal ties be tween the State and
the Ma fia [Heyman and Smart, 1999: pp. 11 ff.]. If, on the one hand, the State
needs a cer tain amount of the Ma fia to en dorse its own role as a watch dog and
cus to dian of so cial or der, the mem bers of Ma fia net works, on the other hand, try
to jus tify their schemes and de signs by emphasising the prac ti cal ab sence and un -
trustworthiness of the State, which, by (their) def i ni tion, is alien and in dif fer ent.
Thanks to its net-like and thus very flex i ble struc ture, the Ma fia can eas ily
side step the bound aries of the na tional State and act very ef fi ciently in the global
arena. Con se quently, it is able to take over and mo nopo lise new trans na tional il -
le gal mar kets. This phe nom e non is no tice able not only in drug traf fick ing, but
also, for in stance, in hu man traf fick ing (il le gal im mi gra tion, pros ti tu tion, etc.),
con tra band of goods (works of art, weap ons, raw ma te ri als, ra dio ac tive ma te ri als,
etc.), be sides the trans fer and dis posal of all types of waste (see Europol’s an nual
re ports).
Though in prin ci ple the most qual i fied au thors [Blok, 1974; Hess, 1988;
Gambetta, 1992; Varese, 2001; Mappes-Niediek, 2003] do not ques tion the
sound ness of the net work met a phor, we ought to voice some sig nif i cant res er va -
tions that high light the need for re vi sions and ad just ments. Thanks to an Ital ian
so ci ol o gist Letizia Paoli, in re cent years the net work par a digm has been re-ex am -
ined and im proved, at least as far as the Ital ian case is con cerned [Paoli, 2000].
Ana lys ing the struc tural char ac ter is tics of Cosa Nos tra in Sic ily and N’drangheta
in Calabria, the au thor of “Fratelli di Ma fia” ques tions whether these Ma fia as so -
ci a tions are solely an ag gre gate of in for mal dyadic ties and co ali tions. Her main
ar gu ment, which is quite con vinc ing, high lights the fact that the Ma fia, as a net -
work or gani sa tion, can not avoid some amount of for mal ity in re la tions, ranks and
roles. Ma fia net works, as de picted by Hess, are in deed very flex i ble, yet also very
weak in terms of struc ture. Hence, in the con text of trans na tional ac tiv i ties they
would run the risk of prov ing in ad e quate and break ing off more eas ily [Paoli,
2000: pp. 5–8] if they lacked any for mal ity. Com pared with ser vices per formed
within the frame work of a for mal agree ment, it is more likely that mu tual com -
mit ments es tab lished through in for mal dyadic agree ments will not be hon oured
[Paoli, 2000: p. 7]. Fur ther more, in or der to guar an tee their pro gres sively di ver si -
fied ac tiv i ties and in ter ests, the in creas ingly multifunctional trans na tional Ma fia
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The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
as so ci a tions have to re sort to pro fes sion als. Now a days the Ma fia can not do with -
out ser vices of qual i fied ac coun tants, law yers, chem ists, fi nance and com puter
ex perts, etc. The fig ure of a non-spe cific ad vi sor (consigliere), which is al most
myth i cal, has nearly dis ap peared or is cur rently be ing as sisted by a team of spe -
cific pros. There fore, we can say that the Ma fia has be come bu reau cratic to some
ex tent. Within this net work of es sen tially in for mal dyadic re la tions, op er a tions
cen tres re volv ing around the capimafia have taken shape. These op er a tions cen -
tres pos sess the char ac ter is tics of a close-knit ex tra-fam ily sub sys tem con tain ing
a clus ter of polyadic re la tions founded upon contracts.
These con sol i dated cores of the Ma fia or gani sa tions, as Letizia Paoli has plau -
si bly dem on strated, are based on sta tus con tracts vouched for by rit ual ac tions
whose proofs are sym bolic broth er hood pacts [Weber, 1956: pp. 416 ff.; Paoli,
2000: p. 77]. These agree ments are not set up for tem po rary or short-term ac tiv i -
ties; in stead, they are marked by their con tin u ance and for mal char ac ter. Hence,
these so cial re la tions have a dif fer ent qual ity: more long-last ing and of fi cial com -
pared to other ties within a broader Ma fia net work. Through sta tus con tracts, the
mem bers of con sol i dated nu clei be come com rades and de velop an es prit du corps,
which we would have a hard time lo cat ing among other net work mem bers. Ac tu -
ally, within these rel a tively small op er a tions cen tres of the Ma fia we can ob serve
a wide range of highly sym bolic rit ual be hav iours that have been overly em -
phasised and gen er al ised in the folkloristic ap proach. Go ing back to the ex am ple
of Andreotti, we can rea son ably pre sume that he was em bed ded in one or more
Ma fia net works with out ever for mally be long ing to one of the above-men tioned
con sol i dated cores. If this were true, then we would have a plau si ble ex pla na tion
for the pub lic pros e cu tor’s non-suc cess at the trial against the for mer prime min -
is ter. For the time be ing, whether Andreotti’s al leged be hav iour was un in ten -
tional or a re mark ably well-con trived ploy is still a wild guess.
The Trade Approach
This rep re sen ta tion of the Ma fia, sug gested by Diego Gambetta (1988) for
Sic ily and by Federico Varese (2001) for post-com mu nist Rus sia, is an at tempt to
re con struct ra tio nal grounds on which Ma fia or gani sa tions func tion. Both au -
thors, who through em pir i cal ev i dence con firm the Ma fia’s de cen tral ised and
net-like as pect, set out to prove, thanks to a keen though too uni ver sal ist ic in ter -
pre ta tion of the ra tio nal choice par a digm, that the so cial fab ric of Ma fia crim i nal -
ity shares func tional sim i lar i ties with the main char ac ter is tics of in dus trial en ter -
prises. Thus, Ma fia as so ci a tions in the end are firms or at times car tels that pro -
duce and man age pri vate pro tec tion within the pub lic sphere. To un der stand
Gambetta’s and Varese’s lines of rea son ing, yet with out be ing able to delve into
all the ar gu ments they de velop, we will try to il lus trate their in ter pre ta tion of one
of the main func tions of psy cho log i cal pres sure, be sides threats and du ress, us ing
the trade met a phor.
Gambetta in par tic u lar high lights how phys i cal and psy cho log i cal vi o lence,
al ways pres ent in the Ma fia’s con text, may be re garded as a spe cific mar ket ing
scheme [Gambetta, 1992: p. 43]. If a Ma fi oso wants to be con sid ered a com pe tent
pa tron, i. e. to ap pear as a suc cess ful pro ducer of pro tec tion, he must con stantly
prove that in any given sit u a tion he can act res o lutely and vig or ously. There fore,
es pe cially the capomafia must be ca pa ble of vi o lence: by us ing vi o lence he can
160 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2
Christian Giordano
bol ster or, better yet, add to his rep u ta tion of uomo d’onore, thus draw ing new cli -
ents in need of pri vate pro tec tion. Ac cord ing to Gambetta, the Ma fia, as a pri vate
pro tec tion in dus try, op er ates just like an au to mo bile fac tory. While the lat ter ex -
tols the safety and com fort of fered by its au to mo biles, the Ma fia pro motes it self
by dis play ing its pur vey ors’ de ter mi na tion [Gambetta, 1992: p. 43].
How ever, the ques tion is why a so ci ety and its mem bers need a pri vate pro -
tec tion in dus try. At this point, Gambetta and Varese in tro duce a no tion that, in
our opin ion, gives the best un der stand ing of the Ma fia phe nom e non in Sic ily and
else where. It is the con cept of trust, which may be re garded as a foot ing of in ter -
per sonal co op er a tion and — ac cord ing to Niklas Luhmann’s ter mi nol ogy — as a
mech a nism suited to re duce so cial com plex ity [Luhmann, 1973: pp. 23–40;
Gambetta, 1988: pp. IX ff.]. Us ing the trade met a phor ter mi nol ogy, we can fi nally
say that the Ma fia, not be ing an ex clu sively Si cil ian phe nom e non, ten ders its
prod ucts suc cess fully in those so ci et ies where trust, es pe cially pub lic trust, is in
very short sup ply. Sup ply and de mand of Ma fia-like pri vate pro tec tion emerge in
so ci et ies with a wide spread feel ing of ex ten sive dis trust to wards the State’s or -
gans and its rep re sen ta tives, as well as civil so ci ety in sti tu tions.
The Historical-Anthropological Perspective:
The Mafia Between Historical Legacy and Globalisation Processes
With great in sight, Giovanni Falcone strongly up held a dis en chanted view of
the Ma fia and as so ci ated phe nom ena [Falcone, 2005: pp. 82 ff.]. Through the re -
con struc tion of dif fer ent rep re sen ta tions of the Ma fia pro pounded by ex perts
from var i ous branches of so cial sci ences, we have tried to an swer the ques tion
posed by the as sas si nated pub lic pros e cu tor1: has the need for a dis en chanted
view at least par tially been taken into ac count? At first sight, we can be cer tain
that, as stated be fore, in al most ev ery ap proach, be sides mis lead ing over state -
ments and overhasty or even in ac cu rate re flec tions, there are im por tant and en -
light en ing the o ret i cal ref er ences. How ever, these are al ways half-truths, which
help to un der stand what we may call the planet Ma fia only to a lim ited ex tent.
De vel op ing a gen eral the ory of Ma fia phe nom ena might be il lu sory. All of the
above-men tioned in ter pre ta tive at tempts lack a plau si ble ex pla na tion as to why
— the Ma fia in Sic ily, de spite quite a strong anti-Ma fia move ment in the
1990s, is still such a vi tal and strong so cial fact and
— quasi-Ma fia or gani sa tions in other parts of the world, par tic u larly in
post-so cial ist so ci et ies, have gained ground so sen sa tion ally.
We be lieve that Gambetta and Varese, by un der scor ing the im por tance of
trust and re spec tively dis trust in the pub lic sphere, have brought to light a very
im por tant track, which to date has not been fully looked into, even by these two
au thors. Per haps, the ra tio nal choice par a digm, be ing too uni ver sal ist ic, is not
the most suit able the o ret i cal tool for ex plain ing the per sis tence of cer tain so cial
facts; it even tu ally turned into a trap for the au thors them selves. Gambetta con -
sid ers the en tre pre neur ial logic and ra tio nal ity in her ent in the Ma fia to be a gen -
eral hu man con stant while pub lic dis trust, in which the Ma fia’s per sis tence is
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2 161
The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
1 Giovanni Falcone was murdered by the Sicilian Mafia in May 1992.
rooted, re mains a re al ity that in ef fect is be yond so cial or his tor i cal con text. Prior
to these two au thors, Falcone had also stressed the cru cial con se quence of pub lic
dis trust (spe cif i cally to wards the State’s in sti tu tions) en sur ing the Ma fia’s en -
dur ance in mo der nity. In his opin ion, the lack of the sense of State as an in ner
value gen er ates dis tor tions, which are pres ent in the Si cil ian spirit: the du al ism
be tween so ci ety and State; fall ing back on the fam ily, the group, the clan, etc.
[Falcone, 2005: p. 71].
The his tor i cal-an thro po log i cal view should cer tainly em ploy con cepts such
as trust and dis trust. Above all, it can not set tle for a sup po si tion as apo dic tic (as
the one for mu lated by Gambetta, which mod elled on the ra tio nal choice par a -
digm). In fact, this course of ac tion is con tex tual and not a pri ori gen eral. Even
the rise of dis trust and a de cline of trust be long to so cial pro duc tion; there fore,
they must be re garded as phe nom ena that are em bed ded in his tory.
His tory, how ever, can not be re duced to a me chan i cal or au to matic se quence
of ob jec tive facts. In stead, it must be un der stood as an in ter preted past ac ti vated
by the ac tors them selves in their pres ent to be in ter preted [Ricoeur, 1985: p. 314].
Hence, the point is how his tory, be ing the past, is per ceived, ei ther in a di rect or
me di ated way, and sub se quently ac tu al ised [Giordano, 2005]. This con cerns
what has been de fined as the pres ence or ef fi cacy of his tory [Schaff, 1976: p. 129;
Ricoeur, 1985: p. 495]. Un like socio-ge netic nar ra tives, the his tor i cal-an thro po -
log i cal view does not deal so much with the Ma fia’s so cio log i cally rel e vant roots
as with the so cial con struc tion of con ti nu ity, by which Ma fia ac tiv i ties in the
minds of mem bers of some so ci et ies take on and main tain a spe cific mean ing.
The ques tion of the con ti nu ity and per sis tence, in Sic ily and else where, of the
so cial fact called “Ma fia” can not be ad e quately an swered within a culturalist ap -
proach, which usu ally em ploys an overly static no tion of cul ture by which the ac -
tors are caged in a fixed frame and thus re duced to ro bots with out a choice; the
same goes for a now ob so lete biologising par a digm. Ac cord ing to the his tor i -
cal-an thro po log i cal view, the en dur ance of Ma fia phe nom ena, de spite their in ev -
i ta ble socio-struc tural changes, springs from the tight and per ma nent in ter ac tion
be tween the col lec tive spaces of ex pe ri ence, in the sense of in ter preted past, and the
ho ri zons of ex pec ta tion to be con sid ered in stead of an imag ined fu ture (and thus to
be in ter preted) in the pres ent [Koselleck, 1979: pp. 349 ff.].
The cur rent pub lic dis trust and the Ma fia as an ad e quate prin ci ple of so cial
or gani sa tion are strictly linked with the dread ful ex pe ri ences that mem bers of a
given so ci ety have con tin u ously had with the State, in both the re cent and dis -
tant past. Ob vi ously, these neg a tive spaces of ex pe ri ence, which have a marked
in flu ence on the ac tors and for ma tion of their ho ri zons of ex pec ta tion, do not re -
pro duce them selves au to mat i cally by tra di tion, i. e. just be cause they are passed
down from gen er a tion to gen er a tion. Such spaces of ex pe ri ence must be con -
stantly con firmed in the pres ent. Tra di tions, as well as mindsets, are ex tremely
mould able phe nom ena whose plau si bil ity and ad e quacy must be per ma nently
ver i fied and con firmed. In ac cor dance with the mem bers’ per cep tion of these ex -
pe ri ences, the cor re spond ing sys tems of rep re sen ta tions and be hav ioural mod els
will be strength ened, mod i fied or dis carded.
The re pro duc tion of neg a tive spaces of ex pe ri ence in so ci et ies of pub lic dis -
trust, such as the one in the Mezzogiorno or those of East ern Eu rope, goes hand in
hand with fail ures of the State and civil so ci ety in sti tu tions. In abil ity of pub lic
162 Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2
Christian Giordano
au thor i ties to carry out their du ties is not only an ob jec tive fact that can be ob -
served from the out side; it is also shared in side and built as such by the cit i zens
them selves. Thus, for the ac tors af fected by to tal in ef fi ciency of pub lic pow ers
and civil so ci ety as so ci a tions, the per sis tence, re sur gence and ex pan sion of Ma fia
ac tion mod els are pos si ble ra tio nal re sponses.
The case of Berlusconi, es pe cially his sly and high-handed un will ing ness to
re solve the clash of in ter ests on ac count of his ap point ment as prime min is ter and
the con cur rent per sis tence of con trol over sev eral news pa pers and mag a zines, as
well as the en tire na tional broad cast ing net work, is para dig matic to prove the
neg a tive ex pe ri ences handed down from the past (with their re sul tant actualisa -
tion). The Ital ian ex-pre mier’s sen sa tional and rep re hen si ble be hav iour can only
con firm the cit i zen’s so cial rep re sen ta tions based on past ex pe ri ences (those be -
long ing to the cog ni tive cap i tal grafted onto the col lec tive mem ory). Ac cord ing
to this so cial knowl edge, the pub lic sphere is a place where pol i ti cians, man ag ers
of civil so ci ety as so ci a tions, pub lic ad min is tra tors, wheeler-deal ers and prof i -
teers can eas ily take hold of ma te rial, so cial and sym bolic re sources, ob tain ing
enor mous and ut terly per sonal ad van tages at the ex pense of third par ties.
Through his un will ing ness to re solve the con flict of in ter ests, Berlusconi def i -
nitely re in forced the dis trust in ev ery thing pub lic, es pe cially if it per tains to the
State. Thus, the idea that in the non-strictly pri vate sec tor (mean ing kin ship and
fam ily) one must rely on friends, god fa thers, pa trons and Ma fi osi for help and
pro tec tion has once again turned out to be the most re li able ex pla na tion of how to
sur vive and thrive in that so ci ety.
Yet, this ex am ple also shows that the Ma fia — in all those so ci et ies where it
flour ishes — should nei ther be re garded as a cul tural relic nor as an anach ro nis tic
anom aly. From a his tor i cal-an thro po log i cal view point, it is rather a his tor i cal
leg acy whose mean ing is con stantly con firmed, ac tu al ised and le giti mised in the
pres ent thanks to the cog ni tive cap i tal and so cial knowl edge that are both con -
gru ent and shared by most mem bers of a given col lec tivi ty.
Conclusions
Fi nally, we ought to ask our selves whether the Ma fia as a his tor i cal leg acy
has a fu ture in a world en dur ing con stant globalisation pres sures. If we take a look
at the ma jor the o ries of globalisation, we will no tice that over all they stress the
im por tance of the fol low ing phe nom ena:
— the more or less forced trans fer of sov er eignty and thus of con trol from the
na tional State to both the global mar ket and localistic (or particularistic)
or gani sa tions [Ong, 1999: pp. 214–217; Misztal, 2000: p. 55],
— the de cline of pub lic (or sys temic) trust among cit i zens and the con se -
quent le git i macy cri sis of dem o cratic states [Castells, 1997: pp. 343–346;
Misztal, 2000: p. 51],
— the grow ing ex pan sion of in for mal ity in hu man re la tions and thus the in -
crease of non-pub lic net work struc tures lack ing an of fi cial char ac ter
[Mény, 1996: p. 116; Misztal, 2000: p. 56] and
— the in creas ing in ter con nec tion be tween po lit i cal and eco nomic in ter ests
[Misztal, 2000: pp. 56–57].
Со ци о ло гия: те о рия, ме то ды, мар ке тинг, 2017, 2 163
The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime
If this sce nario is re al is tic, and it may well be, then it is cer tainly true, as sup -
posed by a pos si bly too uni lat eral so cio log i cal view [Ryan, 1983], that the in di -
vidu ali sation in her ent in globalisation en tails free dom of choice, plu ral isa tion of
world views and liberalisation of life styles. How ever, it is also true that these as -
pects of the globalisation pro cess can for ward the emer gence or de vel op ment of
clientelism, cor rup tion and, con se quently, Ma fia and quasi-Ma fia ac tiv i ties. In
fact, the planet Ma fia, due to its net-like per son al ised and in for mal struc tures, of -
fers an al ter na tive to the State’s le gal and for mal in sti tu tions. Thanks to its
well-tested abil ity to pro vide pri vate pro tec tion in place of the nearly ab sen tee
State mis trusted by their cit i zens, the Ma fia is not in the least at risk of ex tinc -
tion. The risk is that it be comes a crim i nal global player, which will in creas ingly
chal lenge the po lice forces of the en tire world.
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