International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 79

International Journal on Criminology
cradle and its strength is highly dependent on this vital space. However, Mafias
have a permanent objective to extend their territorial control and contest traditional
understanding of territories as they govern and operate in their own maps
and flexible boundaries. Having strongholds do not limit Mafia’s constant attempt
for territorial expansion. In these new maps designed by Mafias, economic flows,
urban designs, environment protection, and moral norms are all strongly impacted
(Cockayne 2016). Sometimes, Mafias have the ability to create a Potemkine village,
giving an illusion of control to Nation-States over their own territory. As a matter
of fact, in many Chinatowns around the world a “ghost mayor” rules. For several
decades, the well-known and highly respected “nocturnal mayor” of Manhattan’
Chinatown was Benny Ong, the local chief of all Triads (McFadden 1994).
2.2.3. Mafias’ Smart Power
Mafias perfectly fit in Joseph Nye’s smart power analysis as they successfully combine
the hard power of coercion and payment with the soft power of persuasion
and attraction (Nye 2011). In fact, the acquiescence of social legitimacy is indispensable
for Mafias, not only to ensure stability for business but also to gain political
power in their competition with Nation-States. Hence, in areas where Mafias
govern people often willingly choose to cooperate with them. In South Italy, for
example, Mafias’ only presence at a café with a candidate to local or national elections
is a sufficient signal to indicate to local populations who to vote for (Gayraud
2011). How do Mafias build this smart power? According to Cockayne’ analysis,
Mafias use “strategic communications” tools designed to shape “the normative order
through efforts designed to legitimise and normalise criminal conduct and
criminal influence” (Cockayne 2016, 38).
Tocqueville and Benedict Anderson insisted that Nation-States sovereignty
needs to be imagined and continuously reinvented to be accepted by a human
community if it is to become real and endure (Gayraud 2014). Thus, as each Nation-State
has a national story, every Mafia needs a founding myth. A street gang
has a reputation, while a Mafia has a legend. Glorious origins are essential to reinforce
Mafia’s internal cohesiveness and to justify its purpose, they are therefore extensively
taught during initiation. Using elements of regional history, Mafias create
patriotic myths, usually insisting on its resistance against oppressive military or
political forces. For example, Cosa Nostra would have been founded during Sicilian
Vespers (1282), Palermo’s famous resistance against French military invasion, and
its acronym would find its origins in the screams of a Sicilian mother seeing her
daughter, a Fia, being raped by a French soldier. A second version says it was inspired
by a Palermo resistance slogan Morte Alla Francia! Italia Anela (M.A.F.I.A.).
As both Foucault and Lukes underline, the successful exercise of power implies
to win “the heart and mind,” to produce or impose attachment’ feelings to
the Nation-State through norms and discourses, the same applies to Mafias (Fels,
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