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1 The evolution of the Sicilian mafia's collective identity: from an instrument of local government to an instrument of the regulation of the economy
The present situation of Sicilian organised crime is the result both of a long historical evolution and of the modern development of the economy in the era of globalization.
It is certainly true that, throughout all its history, the Sicilian mafia has established intense relationships with the economic, political and institutional world. But the shapes and the structures of these relationships have radically changed in recent years, and actually can hardly be recognized even by the judges and the public prosecutors.
About 130 years ago, in June 1875, during a tense debate in the Italian Parliament, the former Chief Prosecutor at the Court of Appeal of Palermo, Diego Tajani, delivered a famous speech about organized crime, formulating the following conclusion: "the mafia in Sicily is not dangerous or invincible in itself. It is dangerous and invincible because it is an instrument of local government."
Behind that statement, there was the awareness that, after national unification, the Italian political system actively contributed to the development of the mafia, using its members as vote-gatherers and unofficial police agents, receiving their information on unauthorized criminals, and in return giving them freedom to operate and the opportunity to keep their rivals under control ([1] Dickie, 2004).
This close and ambiguous relationship between sectors of the institutions and organized crime has distant origins and still corresponds with the group identity and the traditional culture of the members of "Cosa Nostra".
In a recent trial, Giovanni Brusca, the boss who pressed the detonator on the Capaci bomb to murder Giovanni Falcone, and who is now collaborating with the justice, has reported that, in his family background, he assimilated the idea of the "police function" of the mafia. In his town, "Cosa Nostra" hit unauthorized criminals in an inflexible way, killing the men suspected of being burglars or rustlers or robbers, and increasing its local social approval.
However, the extensive changes that have influenced the make-up of the state and society have involved a great readjustment of the criminal association.
Nowadays, the mafia in Sicily may appear dangerous or invulnerable because it has turned into an instrument of...