The Emergence of the Mafia in Italy: An institutional Approach

Abstract

This paper argues that the emergence of the Mafia in Italy can properly be understood by examining Mafia as an institution that had an origin in a unique cultural setting. Special attentions are paid on the peculiarities of the micro environment of Italian society, which was the very soil of the development of Mafia. In addition, the Calvinist and Catholic values will be analysed and compared, which will indicate how the first promoted the production of a global feeling of rational society, whereas the latter adhered the individual sphere and society as a collectivity. In regard to the genesis of Mafia in Sicily, the cultural and moral retrogradation, the unsettlement of the mercantilist, the disappearance of the feudal system, and a huge input of the violent unemployed caused a dire need for protection and organization. The Mafia was the institution that was built up in response to these conditions.