Mafia Style Government as a Path to Political Dictatorship

Abstract

In a narrow sense, the word mafia is a designation for a Sicilian criminal organization. However, throughout the world, the term mafia is also used as a synonym for organized crime. This broad use of the term requires clarification. Organized crime is not only of the mafia style, since in almost all countries, there are also separate street gangs. Gangster-style organized crime does not follow the unwritten rules of mafia-style criminal organizations and often does not exist for an extended period. Their management structure is more primitive, and in the event of the death of their leaders or the deterioration of the conditions of criminal activity, they frequently cease to exist. The main features in the activities of gangster-style criminal organizations are brutal violence, brutality, and the use of the most brutal methods of dealing with victims of crimes, and in certain cases, ignoring mafia authorities. Although gangster organizations can use corrupt connections with representatives of law enforcement and other government agencies, they still do not have enough capabilities of mafia-style organizations to penetrate politics and capture the state. Mafia-style organized crime is trying to penetrate, infiltrate, and control governmental structures. In some states, it fails, but in others, it is successful.   In the period following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the international communist political system, political development followed different scenarios in different countries. One group of countries relatively quickly turned into modern liberal democracies and received guarantees of stable development and security by joining the European Union and NATO. Organized crime and corruption (including political corruption) are low in such countries, and government agencies are free from their influence. The second group of countries quickly slid into authoritarianism and totalitarianism, and their leaders attacked the European Union and the United States of America. Through propaganda, they manipulate public opinion, openly ignore and deliberately distort fundamental democratic values, or oppose them to so-called “traditional values,” "which they do not follow. Third countries are still balancing between democracy and authoritarianism; their leaders cunningly exploit the weaknesses of democracy for their own selfish purposes, and their young civil society is waging an unequal struggle for democracy and civil liberties. In these third countries, the most significant political tension and unstable political development surges are observed, as well as attempts to use organized crime for political purposes.   Traditionally, mafia-style organized crime has not merged with the state apparatus, although it always tries to influence politics and governmental decisions through corrupt connections with politicians and government officials. However, in recent decades, based on the example of a number of former communist states, there has been a clear tendency to capture the state in such a way that the state apparatus of government and the mafia style of government turns out to be identical to each other. In other words, the mafia is presented to society as a system of government. The mafia is invisible because it represents informal relationships, lives in state institutions, and operates behind the scenes, behind the political facade. As a result, all state institutions, in essence, turn out to be mafia structures. However, they position themselves as legitimate state entities of a democratic society. The groups that have usurped political power hold rallies and demonstrations under a democratic flag, under someone else's flag, such as, for example, the flag of the European Union. A new development in this regard is that mafia networks can arise as a result of corruption schemes created by politicians and government officials, and they can use both the mafia and gangster-style traditional organized crime groups as structures serving their needs, especially in elections. This informal, mafia-style government not only permeates all state institutions but also strives to destroy and completely eliminate any civilian control over the activities of this mafia state. The main targets of this style of mafia are non-governmental organizations and independent media, especially during the preparation and conduct of parliamentary, presidential, and local elections with the help of the use of criminals. The governmental mafia accuses civil society of a lack of transparency in order to guarantee its own lack of transparency in the governance of the state. The inevitable consequences of mafia-style control of the state by corrupt politicians and officials are stagnation, lack of democratic change and transparency, the rise of nepotism and kleptocracy, political repression, suppression of the opposition, civil organizations, and free media, as well as the compromise of international democratic organizations and national liberal democracies. Ultimately, the mafia style of government transforms the state into an authoritarian or totalitarian dictatorship.