In the beginnings of known Mafia history, organized crime was introduced to Southern Italy through the Cosa Nostra. Due to repression from the ruling …show more content…
To go even further, organized crime was more so of a family business, as loyalty and family were by far the most important things to those associated with the Cosa Nostra. Through the Mafia, where “the only basis of loyalty was famiglia- ‘blood of my blood,’” it was implicitly mandated that “any offense or slight to the family [...] had to be avenged” (Abadinsky 105). Power in the organization was centralized in the hands of certain families. In addition, all information about the Mafia was secretive and through word of mouth. In this sense, at its origin, organized crime was …show more content…
Northern politicians of Italy found that southerners “could provide safe majorities for whatever government gave sufficient bribes or concessions to the local bosses who could guarantee electoral victor” (Hobsbawm 43). This established a widespread patronage prevalence between officials and mafiosi present in the politics of Rome. Similarly, in the case of the ‘Ndrangheta, a substantial migration to Northern Italy set the foundation for successful vote mobilization, as “almost the entire increase in population” between the 1971 census and the census prior happened to be people from the same area as the powerful ‘Ndrangheta boss, Lo Presti (Varese 15). For this reason, a great amount of votes would fall under the power of the mafia, leading to government members of Verona needing to cooperate with the ‘Ndrangheta in order to simply win