Mafia Politics

Description

This ground-breaking book offers a deep and original analysis of the Mafia – in particular Cosa Nostra – as a distinct form of politics. Marco Santoro breaks with criminal and economic approaches which see the Mafia as an industry of private protection and rationally calculating wealth accumulation. Instead he argues that it represents an alternative way of organizing political relations, the exercise of power, and the struggle for prestige. Nor is this a distortion or failure of the modern Western state, based on the rule of law: the Mafia is best understood as an older, alternative tradition of politics, a distinctly Southern institutional arrangement of social life focused on personal ties and obligations. Today, the Mafia still thrives among subaltern classes and in regions that the modern state has not yet incorporated, as a conservative counter-politics of prestige. Pivotal to understanding this world is a cultural sociology of the Mafia, offering the tools and concepts necessary to penetrate the symbolism and structures of Mafia life. Blending diverse theoretical strands with folk sources and the voices of Mafiosi themselves, Santoro develops a political theory of the Mafia, shedding new light on this captivating, global, and remarkably resilient phenomenon. Cover Title page Copyright page Contents Acknowledgements Preface 1 Mafia, Politics and Social Theory: An Introduction The Argument The Setting (The Case Study) Where Is the ‘Politics’ in Mafia Politics? Contesting Eurocentric Social Theory A Final Note on Sources and Method 2 The ‘Mafia’ in ‘Mafia Studies’: (Re)constructing a Sociological Object An Archaeology of ‘Mafia Studies’, 1860-1900 Towards a Comparative Approach: Hobsbawm’s Pioneering Contribution and the Neglect of American Research on Organized Crime The Modern Wisdom (or Mafia Studies since 1970) Global Mafia (or a Globalization of Mafia Studies) 3 What is Right with the Economic Theory of the Mafia? The Rationalist School and Its Foils The Economic Theory of the Mafia From the Economic Theory of the Mafia to Protection Theory Some Problems with the Theory Towards a Political Theory of the Mafia 4 The Public Life of Mafiosi The Publicness of the Mafia The Public Lives of Mafiosi Protection as a Field (A First Instalment) The Public Secrecy of the Mafia 5 The Mafioso’s Gift, or: Making Sense of an ‘Offer You Cannot Refuse’ Of Gifts and Commodities (and Goods as Well) The Gift and the Mafia The Gift of the Godfather: Giving Evidence to the Argument ‘An offer you cannot refuse’ ‘I am someone who has always cried over the pain of others’ Of hospitality and conviviality Politics of the Mafia Gift 6 Blood, Bund and (Personal) Bonds: The Mafia as an Institutional Type Of Brotherhoods and Institutions The mafia and the ‘fraternization contract’ The organization model From brotherhood to Bund Rituals of blood Culture, Writing and Communication Mafia as mode of personal communication Hermeneutics of mafia communication From writing to structure Violence, Communication and Pathos 7 Mafias as an Elementary Form of Politics Refining the Model: The Political Nature of Mafia Obligation Testing the Model: Questions of Method Testing the Model: Six Tracks for Future Research Secret societies, triads, and the mafia in China Sicily as the future of Russia, again Yakuza, the Japanese mafia Is India the future of Sicily? Looking for the mafia in the US Congress From Mana to Mafia: On the Very Idea of ‘Elementary Forms of Political Life’ Appendix ‘Mafia Studies’ as a ‘Field’ Notes Preface Chapter 1: Mafia, Politics and Social Theory: An Introduction Chapter 2: The ‘Mafia’ in ‘Mafia Studies’: (Re)constructing a Sociological Object Chapter 3: What is Right with the Economic Theory of the Mafia? Chapter 4: The Public Life of Mafiosi Chapter 5: The Mafioso’s Gift, or: Making Sense of an ‘Offer You Cannot Refuse’ Chapter 6: Blood, Bund and (Personal) Bonds: The Mafia as an Institutional Type Chapter 7: Mafias as an Elementary Form of Politics Appendix References Name Index Subject Index EULA