The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection

by Diego Gambetta

Book Overview

In a society where trust is in short supply and democracy weak, the Mafia sells protection, a guarantee of safe conduct for parties to commercial transactions. Drawing on the confessions of eight Mafiosi, Diego Gambetta develops an elegant analysis of the economic and political role of the Sicilian Mafia.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674807421
• ISBN13: 9780674807426
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive exploration of the Sicilian Mafia in Italy

Based on interviews with 29 businessmen and other economic agents in Palermo and parliamentary and trial sources, Professor Gambetta from Oxford University maintains that the Sicilian Mafia is a specific economic enterprise which produces, promotes, and sells private protection to businessmen, politicians, and the public at large. He attempts not to define Mafia as a network of corruption and collusion and tries to make sense of it in rational terms. This book should be the most comprehensive account of how the Sicilian Mafia organised and offered protection services to different customers. Professor Gambetta suggests that the Sicilian Mafia plays a role as a lubricant in economic exchange, albeit in an erratic manner. He bases on his premise that survival of this private protection industry is due mainly to scarce and fragile trust in the society where no legitimate enforcement agency is available. Low-trust expectations between buyers and sellers can therefore generate demand for such protection services. This book is divided into three main parts. Part I analyses general characteristics of the private protection industry. It is an industry that is managed with its peculiar requirements and constraints. As for the production and sale of protection services, the Sicilian Mafia requires certain resources including intelligence and secrecy, violence, and market reputation. What make the Sicilian Mafia different from other private firms is that they are more complicated in terms of customer retention, ownership, and manpower recruitment. For instance, the disappearance of a boss or when the boss is not available for whatever reason can increase the likelihood of internal challenge in ownership. Part II of this book focuses on the origins and development of the Sicilian Mafia. Professor Gambetta maintains that endemic distrust, economic depression together with inept administration and erratic justice of the government can explain why the Mafia emerged in western Sicily. The Sicilian Mafia originated in prosperous agricultural areas and finally expanded their protection services to the city markets. Each mafia firm was organised within families and evidence reveals the existence of natural clusters amongst different mafia firms with the presence of the "commissione" system. Moreover, they have peculiar trademarks in terms of the ethnic origin of the members, the initiation ritual, and the brand name that distinguish them from outsiders. In Part III, Professor Gambetta undertakes an empirical description of the industry's product including diverse types of contract, protection, and payment plans offered to customers. They tempt to utilise collusive maneuvering in order to protect themselves from rival competition. It takes a variety of forms, ranging from dividing territory, taking turns, to sharing customers in orderly and disordered markets. Professor Gambetta believes that if the Italian government chooses to deliver genuine protection to t

Mafia ®

What exactly is a mafia? What type of underworld association may rightfully assume the title? Can any criminal group organized along ethnic lines qualify? The answer is "No" according to Diego Gambetta. He argues that criminal activity and ethnicity alone do not justify use of the term; and the popularly held concept about what constitutes a mafia is based on broad assumption, and contains inaccuracies. Gambetta traces the social and economic origins of this much dramatized organization from the 1800s to the present. He establishes authenticity according to a more exacting set of criteria, and explains how the mafia is more than a collection of "clever psychopaths." It is an industry specializing in protection; a group of firms that possess `recognizable trademarks,' `means of identifying legitimate members;' and is successful in `thwarting imposters.' Not every group, therefore, may rightfully be designated as "mafia." Gambetta documents extensively the history and facts surrounding one of the most successful crime cartels in history, and delves into its myths and mysteries. His account of the creation of such words as mafia, a literary creation actually applied externally, is illuminating. One source he quotes, Leopold Franchetti, reveals the label was originally applied to "a class of violent criminals ready and waiting for a name to define them." Upon reflection, the reader then imagines more examples of `externally applied' definitions: political parties are exceptionally good at conjuring up choice names for their opponents. I strongly doubt that the master of Hell bestowed the title, "Prince of Darkness" on himself. Even the sobriquet "G-men" was first created for the FBI, the mafia's unrelenting foe, by notorious gangster Machine Gun Kelly. "The Sicilian Mafia" is excellent reading and a superb source of reference. It is marvelously objective in providing information, extensive examination and insightful, in-depth analysis, as it explores the phenomenon of modern-day, organized crime society.