Italian Mafia

The Core of the Mafia Phenomenon: The Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Calabria ‘Ndrangheta

At the turn of the twenty-first century, there are more than 500 witnesses who can confirm the existence of either the Cosa Nostra or the ‘Ndrangheta, because they themselves were members. Thanks to their statements, it also is clear that the two Mafia consortia possess the distinguishing trait of the organization (Weber [1922] 1978: 48): independent government bodies that regulate the internal life of each associated family and that clearly are different from the authority structure of their members' biological families. Moreover, starting from the 1950s, superordinate bodies of coordination were set up—first in the Cosa Nostra, then in the ‘Ndrangheta as well. Composed of the most important family chiefs, they are known as “commissions.” Although the powers of these collegial bodies are rather limited, the unity of the two confederations cannot be doubted. In fact, it is guaranteed by the sharing of common cultural codes and a single organizational formula. According to a model very frequent in premodern societies, in fact, the Cosa Nostra and the ‘Ndrangheta are segmentary societies; that is, their collective identity derives from the replication of homologous corporate and cultural forms.

Neither the Cosa Nostra nor the ‘Ndrangheta can be fully understood as a form of Weber's ideal type of legal-rational bureaucracy, as was suggested by Donald Cressey (1969) with reference to the American La Cosa Nostra. Far from recruiting their staff and organizing the latter's work according to the criteria and procedures of modern bureaucracies, Mafia groups impose a veritable “status contract” on their members (Weber [1922] 1978: 672). With the ritual initiation into a Mafia brotherhood, the novice is required to assume a new identity permanently—to become a “man of honor”—and to subordinate all his previous allegiances to the Mafia membership. If necessary, he must be ready to sacrifice even his life for the Mafia family.

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