Mafia, organized crime, and social protest 9781405198073

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Mafia, organized crime, and social protest PAOLO PEZZINO

Some social scientists and historians who have studied the activity of the Mafia have shown it to be not simply organized crime, but rather a collective social behavior that, while deviant to state laws, nonetheless responds to cultural honor and community social codes. Indeed, historian Eric Hobsbawm has depicted the Mafia as a primitive form of social protest. This image of the Mafia, widely reflected in the mass media, has no foundation in reality. Historical research has demonstrated, on the contrary, that the role of the code of honor has been, and still is, that of a compact among a violent elite against the external world. In the context of Mafia action, the honor of the Mafioso and omertà (conspiracy of silence) appears not as widespread subculture, but rather as a set of behaviors forcefully commanded by the violent elite, in a game in which Mafiosi and ruling classes both manipulate cultural codes to gain social and political dominance. The origin of the Sicilian Mafia has not yet been completely elucidated by historical research. Criminal associations can be traced to the period before unification, although they were not named Mafia, a term that took hold only in the first years after unification. Judicial chronicles recount the existence in villages of strange groups of persons, organized along sectarian lines, that profited from the corruption and inefficiency of the Bourbon state by creating some sort of territorial domination. Under state officers’ protection, they devoted themselves to larceny or to the commerce of stolen livestock, presenting

themselves as defenders of social order and offering themselves to proprietors as agents to ransom loot from robberies they themselves had committed. In the insurgencies of mid-nineteenth-century Sicily, armed squads organized around leaders and took part in the uprisings, offering support to those making the best offer. The origins of the Mafia can be traced back to armed squads, capable of enforcing violence, which used their strength and powers of intimidation not only in illegal affairs, but also for the purpose of enrichment and social ascent, by controlling crucial aspects of society, such as the local economy and public order. They are violent elites that occupy public spaces and powers in contrast to the lawful powers of the state. In order for this to happen, certain conditions are necessary. First is a modern state that is weak to the point of being unable to exercise sovereignty or maintain a monopoly on physical violence. Second is an economy freed by feudal restraints, based on private property and the market, in a society undergoing rapid transformation, with broken traditional social balances but with no new emerging classes strong enough to exercise social control (by force or by consensus) on the downtrodden classes. Finally, there must be a situation that does not offer a chance for those who are stricken by the effects of economic crisis to avoid the worsening of economic conditions by migrating or starting new activities, but that, on the other hand, presents wide opportunities for resolute men who are able to move on illegal grounds. The use of violence in mid-nineteenthcentury Sicily has three fundamental aspects. To landowners and the aristocracy it was a factor of prestige and defense of their

The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest, Edited by Immanuel Ness. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0947

2 MAFIA, ORGANIZED CRIME, AND SOCIAL PROTEST propriety. To the middle classes it was a resource to support processes of social advancement on a local basis. To some others, from the lower classes, it could represent an alternative – mostly the only alternative – to poverty, and conversely a chance to get rich. Extra-institutional violence proved then to be essential to the accumulation of profits and political resources. Certain personal qualities lead those who can use violence to act upon their abilities. Such personal qualities can include courage, non-conformism, a cruel nature, and some “entrepreneurial” qualities. These qualities do not coincide with social classes: both violent actors and their victims often belong to the same social groups. For example, peasants suffer abuse from Mafiosi of the same social class, while some landowners can acquire Mafia protection and others pay ransoms. In such conditions, the notion of legality remains abstract, and private violence finds no constraint in the lawful state authority. It then follows that the foundation of social relations in such a situation is violence. Mafia is therefore a real criminal power, based from the beginning on secret societies that

participate in multiple illegal activities. It is prone to exercise sovereignty functions normally reserved for state authorities on a given territory, by levying some sort of taxation on legal economic activities and by producing some sort of normative system that foresees violent sanctions for those who prove deviant to it. SEE ALSO: Anarchism, Italy; Italy, 17thCentury Revolts in the South REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS Blok, A. (1974) The Mafia of a Sicilian Village 1860–1960: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs. New York: Harper & Row. Hess, H. (1970) Mafia. Zentrale Herrschaft und lokale Gegenmacht. Tübingen: Mohr. Hobsbawm, E. J. (1959) Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Pezzino, P. (1990) Una certa reciprocità di favori. Mafia e modernizzazione violenta nella Sicilia post-unitaria. Milan: Angeli. Schneider, J. C. & Schneider, P. T. (1976) Culture and Political Economy in Western Sicily. New York: Academic Press.