ABSTRACT
The traditional literature in North America has been based mainly on the Mafia as it exists in the USA. A proper understanding of the political and economic conditions which favored the development of mafia-type organizations ought to shift the focus on to preventive policies based on a restoration of the socio-economic and political rights of people living in the affected regions. The Italian literature offers more differentiated definitions based on the model of national “mafias”. In the Italian Mezzogiorno, and in other similar environments, the first step is to restore the socio-economic and political rights of people living in conditions which foster the development of mafia-type organizations. Such a culture will ensure that public money is managed for the public good, rather than for the benefit of the bosses and their clients, and will also create public pressure for the political accountability of politicians acting illegally in local and national government.
