ABSTRACT

The Neapolitan Camorra today is a flexible criminal business which resides in the shadow of society. It is there and not there, always at the margins, always ready to act and keep ahead of the law in order to make profit, whatever the human cost maybe. Like other criminal organizations, it is often talked about in biological terms and compared to a cancer or to an octopus. This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the previous chapters of this book. The study presented tried to analyse the pervasive nature of this 'bacterium' and its transformation in Campania during the post-war period. The case studies illustrated the nature of the changes social, economic and political, which took place during the last thirty years' modernization process. The study confirms the thesis developed by Renate Siebert (1993, 1996) that such organizations as the Sicilian Mafia are mortal enemies of representative democracy.