{"id":13773,"date":"2018-09-26T02:36:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T02:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=13773"},"modified":"2018-09-27T02:41:08","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T02:41:08","slug":"how-the-mafia-uses-violence-to-control-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-the-mafia-uses-violence-to-control-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"How the mafia uses violence to control politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gianmarco Daniele<\/a>, Bocconi University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Italy is not the only country with an organized crime problem<\/a>. But movies and TV shows like \u201cScarface,\u201d \u201cThe Godfather\u201d and \u201cGomorrah\u201d have made the Italian mobs \u2013 in both their southern Italian and American incarnations \u2013 world-famous. <\/p>\n

Such pop culture portrayals tend to romanticize a dangerous phenomenon that\u2019s all too real for those whose lives it affects. <\/p>\n

What TV and movies have often gotten right, however, is the idea that Italy\u2019s criminal networks are powerful enough to threaten the government. <\/p>\n

According to the country\u2019s first-ever comprehensive survey on political violence<\/a>, Italy saw 1,191 violent attacks against politicians between 2013 and 2015. The count, undertaken by the Italian nonprofit organization Avviso Pubblico, was culled from local news stories and first-hand accounts.<\/p>\n

How does this pervasive violence affect Italian politics? <\/p>\n

A new paper in the Journal of Public Economics<\/a>, which I co-authored alongside University of Pennsylvania political scientist Gemma Dipoppa, analyzes Italy\u2019s new survey data to find out. <\/p>\n

Why do criminals attack politicians?<\/h2>\n

The goals of criminal organizations differ from group to group. <\/p>\n

Organized crime is defined as a highly centralized, often international criminal enterprise that seeks to infiltrate politics and extract public resources for private benefits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Italy, our study found, the mafia frequently threatens politicians to obtain government contracts that pay handsomely for waste management, construction<\/a> and other public services.<\/p>\n

Individual politicians who threaten those business interests may find themselves in danger. Physical assaults, arson and threats are the mafia\u2019s favored tactics. These crimes make up 70 percent of the 1,191 political attacks documented by Avviso Pubblico.<\/p>\n

After the director of a Sicilian national park in 2016 strengthened anti-mafia checks on local firms applying to work in the park, for example, he narrowly survived a nighttime assassination attempt<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Other politicians are corrupt, contributing to Italy\u2019s organized crime problem by sharing illegal profits with the mob. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have to get our fill<\/a>,\u201d said one Naples bureaucrat who was recorded taking bribes from the mafia. <\/p>\n

Between 1991 and 2018, Italian police dissolved 266<\/a> city councils for having ties with criminal organizations.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Media representations of the mafia like \u2018The Sopranos\u2019 tend to romanticize mobsters. But they get some things right.<\/span>
\n Diariocritico de Venezuela\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local officials are most at risk<\/h2>\n

Interestingly, none of the documented political violence we analyzed targeted national figures \u2013 likely because attacking well-known politicians would bring more media exposure. <\/p>\n

Rather, the Italian mafia typically targets local officials. Mayors were the target of 310 of the documented 1,191 attacks on politicians from 2013 to 2015.<\/p>\n

Italians know this, because these stories play out regularly in local newspapers.<\/p>\n

The mayor of Marcianise<\/a>, a town near Naples, left office in early 2018 after a wave of threats, for example. <\/p>\n