What Is the Mafia?

Gaetano Mosca is one of the twentieth century’s main exponents of Italian political thought and more specifically one of the greatest and most prestigious proponents of elitist theory. The verses that follow are from a conference on the mafia that he held in Turin in 1900. In coherence with his overall pessimistic approach to democracy, he writes that the logics and mechanisms of the representative system cause the ancient collusion between lord and mafioso. Their complacent intentions are thus pervasive and almost inviolable for the public authorities. Yet this is not the only merit of Mosca’s analysis. He insists on the requirement that the compromise between mafia, legal power and political institutions be based on quiet living, lingering over this point with acumen. The love of quiet living is, in fact, quintessential to the “mafia spirit.” However, Mosca’s dedicated attention to the mafia spirit does not imply a slippage down what has come to be recognised as the very slippery and unhappy slope of treating the mafia as a “mentality.” The mafia spirit or mentality is merely the cultural and moral reservoir that real mafiosi capitalise on to increase their influence.