The Modernity of the Mafia: Public Mistrust, Personalised Networks, Organised Crime

Abstract

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.