~THE SICILIAN MAFIA The Business of Private Protection D1EGO GAMBETTA HARVARD UNIveRsITY PRESS ‘Cambridge, Massachusetts London, EnglandCopyright © 1995 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College Alleights reserved Prime in the United Seats of America “This book has been digitally ceprinted. The content femain identical t that of peevious printings. First Harvard Universe Press paperback edition, 1996 Library of Congres Cataloging in-Publiction Data Tse eliann Esl “The Sian ata ies of pate protection Diego amber “earl La maison. Tnlude itdigeapcal efrencesandinde ISBNO.674-807413 (clo ISBN 0.674-80742.1 (pbk) 1. Mafia—ltaly-—Sicly. 2. Organized erime—Economic aspects— fealy—Sily. 1 Tie HV6853,183M34513 1993, 364.10609458—4e20 93.9612 oP Acknowledgments Glovanni Contin deserves credit for sowing the seeds of ny intel- lectual curiosity about Sicilian society. Daniel Bell, Partha Dasgupta, and Geoffrey Hawthorn encouraged me at crucial moments of my re search and contributed comments which shaped the approach of this book. Pascal Boyer drew my attention to the way in which the: meaning ‘of some rituals lies in the fact that, in themselves, they mean nothing at all. Luca Anderlini, Alex Kacelnik, Carol Mershon, Lucy Riall, Hamid Sabourian, Tony Tanner, George Tsebelis, Alberto Vannucci, and Federico Varese offered constructive comments on various parts of the manuscript. During my stay in Palermo I benefited from the assistance of several people, not all of whom, however, wish to be mentioned here. Anna Puglisi and Umberto Santino were very generous hosts and gave me access to the library and facilities of the Centro di Documentazione Giuseppe Impastato. Commissioner Saverio Montalbano kindly shared with me his views on the subject of the mafia. [am also indebted {0 Salvatore Modica and his gracious friends for their instructive con- versation, Furthermore, my gratitude goes to Susi Abate, and Giovanni Accardi, Giulia Aurigemma, Giorgio Chinni family, Giancarlo Lo Curzio, Santo Quartuccio, and Mario Romeo, who contributed to making my research possible and my life more pleasant. Above all I am grateful to Judge Paolo Borsellinos the time he devoted to me seems even more precious now, since his vicious murder. ‘The assistance of Donato Messina and Antonino Reina was essential in acquiring the judicial sources. Giancarlo Bartoloni, who works for Sinistra Indipendente at the Senate in Rome, was instrumental in ob- taining the parliamentary files. The Cambridge University Library, ‘Stephen Lees and Willian Noblett in particular, undertook to purchasevi ~ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and preserve a number of sources and were generally very helpful. Carlo Gambetta, my father, put his meticulous inspection of the daily press to very good use to supply me with an impressive collection of clippings about the mafia. 1 received funding from two sources. An International Fellowship feom FORMEZ (Training and Studies Center for Southern Italy) sup- ported me during my fieldwork in 1986-87. For this Tam particularly indebted to Guido Martinotti for his spontaneous backing, In 1989 the Economicand Social Research Council of Great Britain gavemea grant to employ a full-time research assistant for a year. Finally, King's Col- lege Research Centre hosted the project and provided both office facil- ities and a friendly environment. "Aneatlier version of portions of Chapter 6 and Appendix. was orig- inally published in 1991 as “In the Beginning Was the Word: The Sym- bols of the Mafia,” Archives Européenes de Sociologie 32(1): 53-57. My debt of gratitude to Heather Martin and Amanda Heller, whose editing skills have made this book both grammatical and more concise, hhas reached heights which words cannot adequately express (and they ‘would edie them out anyway). My deepest thanks are reserved for Valeria Pizzini, my collaborator for the last two years, whose critical acumen in sifting through the empirical evidence has had an incalcu- lable impact on the quality of this book. Contents Introduction 1 I, Tue INDUSTRY OF PROTECTION 1. TheMarket 15 2. TheResources 34 3. TheIndustry 53 IT, Tue Inpusrey iw Sicizy 4, The Origins 75 ‘S. The Cartel 100 6. The Trademarks 127 II]. PROTECTION IN PRACTICE 7. Dispute Settlement 159 8. Orderly Markets 195 9. Disordered Markets 226 Conclusion 245 Postscript 257 ‘Appendix A: Etymologies of Mafioso and Mafia 259 Appendix: Descriptions of the Mafia Ritual 262 Abbreviations 271 Notes 275 Bibliography 315 Index 325