The Sicilian Mafia was born as the armed wing of the feudal nobility with the aim of suppressing the claims of the peasants. In some relevant aspects, the Sicilian Mafia is a product of its geography and history: Italy has a very vast territorial and cultural diversity, a complicated process of national unification, state building, democratisation and modernisation. In other aspects, the Italian criminal system is also characterised by a fierce political struggle that has dramatically divided the country, accentuating and exacerbating the problems derived from its geographical and social legacy. The present study is divided into five sections. In the first section I deal with some of the juridical issues related to definitions of “illegal” compromises, connections, ties, and links, and in the second section I outline the path of the classical Italian school, from Gaetano Mosca to Giovanni Falcone, including Giovanni Sartori and his lesson on democratic vulnerability. The third section focuses on various problems relating to the United States: I expand on standard reference point in sociological and criminological theory, underlined by theorists such as R.K. Merton and Daniel Bell and, regarding drug dealing, I focus on Gary Becker’s dissertation on decriminalization. The fourth section explores the Sicilian Mafia issue whose origins are deeply connected to the growth of a democratic identity in the West, between the mid-nineteenth and late twentieth century. The fifth and final section discusses democratization and its discontents.

Center and peripheries in Mafia connections

GAMMONE, MARIATERESA
2014-01-01

Abstract

The Sicilian Mafia was born as the armed wing of the feudal nobility with the aim of suppressing the claims of the peasants. In some relevant aspects, the Sicilian Mafia is a product of its geography and history: Italy has a very vast territorial and cultural diversity, a complicated process of national unification, state building, democratisation and modernisation. In other aspects, the Italian criminal system is also characterised by a fierce political struggle that has dramatically divided the country, accentuating and exacerbating the problems derived from its geographical and social legacy. The present study is divided into five sections. In the first section I deal with some of the juridical issues related to definitions of “illegal” compromises, connections, ties, and links, and in the second section I outline the path of the classical Italian school, from Gaetano Mosca to Giovanni Falcone, including Giovanni Sartori and his lesson on democratic vulnerability. The third section focuses on various problems relating to the United States: I expand on standard reference point in sociological and criminological theory, underlined by theorists such as R.K. Merton and Daniel Bell and, regarding drug dealing, I focus on Gary Becker’s dissertation on decriminalization. The fourth section explores the Sicilian Mafia issue whose origins are deeply connected to the growth of a democratic identity in the West, between the mid-nineteenth and late twentieth century. The fifth and final section discusses democratization and its discontents.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11697/93782
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